LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Cijap Gojujngfji ^xt 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



BY 



DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D. D. 




^6 > } V ^» 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET,. NEW YORK. 



Ithb li»*a*yI 

IGF C OHOK SMj 
WASHIMOTOHJ 






COPYRIGHT, 1892, 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



CONTENTS 



The Gospel of Gladness page 5 

The Trysting-Place ___ 13 

Wild Oats 20 

Job's Daughters 28 

A Coward, and What Became of Him 34 

The Story of a Blind Beggar 41 

The Twice-Taught Lesson 49 

Twenty Reasons for Believing the Bible to be the W T ord of God- 57 

A Genuine Instance of Faith-Cure 72 

"If" and " Why?"-. 80 

The Right of a Man before the Face of God 88 

Paul at Athens 96 

At the Door: A New Year Meditation ^ 103 

Losing One's Life 112 

The Brazen Serpent 120 

Making Haste 129 

Therefore Get Wisdom 137 

An Incredible Rumor 147 

The Treasures of the Bible as a Book among Books 156 

Sunrise 168 

The Bright Light in the Cloud 176 



4 CONTENTS. 

Christ and the Bible; How They Stand or Fall Together 184 

The Faith of an Infidel 196 

The Great Lodestone 204 

" The Jericho Road " 212 

How Jesus Kept the Sabbath 220 

The Centurion's Story 229 

Paul's Easter Sermon at Antioch 238 

"The Great Refusal "__ 247 

Our Passover 255 

Charity Thinketh No Evil 263 

On the Stormy Sea , 272 

The Silent Architect 2S1 

The True Knight — 290 

The Respectable Saloon 299 

A Day of Wonders - 3*0 



THE 

GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



" Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." Phil. 4:4. 

A YOUNG man was looking forward to his wedding- 
day. It was the old story : his life was sweetened and 
brightened by the constant vision of one fair face. The 
arrangements for the festal occasion were all made and 
the time was drawing nigh. The caterer had been en- 
gaged and the master of ceremonies, the festivities of the 
occasion were all planned, when suddenly a strange thing 
happened — the young man was converted. He met with 
Jesus the Nazarene and surrendered all. But now what 
was to be done about those festivities ? Religion is a se- 
rious piece of business. Life had assumed a new and far 
more important interest since Jesus had entered into it. 
Was it a time for singing and merry-making? What 
would the new Master say? The difficulty was solved in 
the right way. Jesus himself was invited to the wedding. 
The young man determined that he would have nothing 
going on at his home which should be out of line with the 
obligations of his new life or which his new Master could 
not bless with his presence and his smile. 

The time came, and Jesus was at the wedding; nor 
did he deport himself there as a wall-flower or kill-joy, or 
chill the pleasure of the feast by lowering looks : He moved 
about among the happy guests with a bright light in His 
eyes and a cheery word on His lips. Their myrtle branches 
and chaplets of flowers, their laughter and music and 



6 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

carrying- of torches, did not offend Him. When the harp 
and psaltery struck up he made no protest ; when the nup- 
tial hymn was sung he did not frown upon it. This Jesus 
was not a sanctimonious dreamer among the shadows, but 
a man among men. And when, to meet an unexpected 
need of the occasion, he turned the water into wine, it was 
very like what he has been doing ever since, by his bright 
presence transforming the perfunctory duties of a mechan- 
ical piety into the merry-making of a genuinely holy life. 

His attendance at that wedding in Cana struck the 
key-note of his religion and of the Christian life. 

A Christian who lives with his head hung down like a 
bulrush and casting looks of deprecation towards all in- 
nocent delights, gives a false impression of the religion 
which he professes and of the Saviour whom he loves. 

Where shall we find a lawful joy and peace if not in 
the Christian life? If we are reconciled with God, if hell 
is behind us and heaven before us, if our consciences are 
clear, our hearts should be tuned, not to "II Penseroso," 
but rather to " L'Allegro "— 

" Hence loathed Melancholy, 
Of Cerberus and blackest midnight born, 
In Stygian cave forlorn, 

'Mongst horrid shapes and shrieks and sights unholy. 
And haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest and youthful Jollity, 
Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
And Laughter holding both his sides." 

Why not ? There are pleasures for evermore at the right 

hand of God. 

One reason why we should rejoice is because we have 
•od God and we know it. We are not afraid of him ; 

we have made our peace with him. 

The Puritans were a noble body of heroic men, but we 



THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 7 

have somewhat against them, in this, that they maligned 
God. Their conception of him as a consuming fire dis- 
torted all the tasks and pleasures of their common life. 
In their eyes it was a sin to wear a starched ruff, to play 
a game of cricket, or to smile on the holy Sabbath, and to 
read the " Fairy Queen " was as the unpardonable sin. Up 
and down the sedgy roads wandered Oliver, the noblest 
of them all, muttering to himself and envying the owls 
that hooted among the leafless boughs, and the toads that 
croaked among the leaves and grass, because they had no 
" certain fearful looking for of judgment." 

We have not so learned our gracious God. We were 
indeed under condemnation and had need to be forgiven, 
but the cross has put our melancholy to an open and eter- 
nal shame. 

" Could we with ink the ocean fill, were the whole world of 

parchment made, 
Were every single stick a quill and every man a scribe by trade, 
To write the love of God alone would drain the ocean dry, 
Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from 
sky to sky." 

God has shown himself in providence and grace to be 
the best of fathers. We draw nigh to him not in the spirit 
of bondage again to fear, but in the spirit of adoption 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 

A secojid reaso?i why we should rejoice is because our 
God has given us a pleasant world to live in. 

He might have made the sky of a dun color, as dismal 
as the roof of some subterranean vault, dripping with slime, 
bats clinging, to the walls, and the chill of the dreary place 
creeping into the very marrows of one's bones. But he 
did not. He made the sky so brilliantly beautiful as to 
put rubies and diamonds and sapphires to shame. - He 
placed the shining sun in mid-heaven, and lit the stars at 



8 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

night and set them swinging like lanterns at the top-masts 
of an innumerable armada sailing through the ocean of 
infinite space. 

He might have made the earth like yonder moon, the 
memorial of some catastrophe of ages long ago, scarred 
and blistered and barren. But he did not. He carpeted 
the earth with green pastures, and planted it with gardens 
whose perfume is like to that of Hesperus, with birds sing- 
ing among the trees and flowers blooming everywhere, 
from the buttercup by the brookside to the edelweiss on 
the snow-capped summits of the Alps. 

He might have made the ocean a steaming pond of 
foulness, shored with asphalt like the Dead Sea, and with 
jackals and hyenas prowling near. But he did not. He 
made it a vast reservoir of pellucid sweetness, baring its 
bosom to the commerce of the nations and opening its 
arms to receive the murmuring brooks and rolling rivers. 

And best of all, this world so beautiful is everywhere 
and always vocal with the praises of God. The stars are 

" For ever singing as they shine, 
'The hand that made us is divine.' " 

On every grass-blade, on the white vesture of the lily, is 
written the Name which is above every other. The ocean 
rolls the praises of Him who holds its waters in the hol- 
low of his hands. An undevout man cannot appreciate 
the beauty of this world. No poet can adequately sing 
its splendors unless, like Coleridge in the Valley of Cha- 
mouni, he can distinctly hear " earth with its thousand 
voices praising God." 

A third reason why a Christian should make merry 
and be glad is because a golden opportunity is his. 

11 Is life worth living?" That depends. If a man has 
no purpose, no loftv aspiration for his own or Others 1 good, 



THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 9 

it is an open question. Among the hymns of Isaac Watts 
there is nothing- more suggestive than the comparatively 
unknown bit of wisdom which he calls " insignificant ex- 
istence." 

" There are a number of us creep 
Into this world to eat and sleep, 
And know no reason why we 're born 
But only to consume the corn, 
Devour the cattle, fowl, and fish, 
And leave behind an empty dish. 
The crows and ravens do the same, 
Unlucky birds of hateful name : 
Ravens or crows might fill their place, 
And swallow corn and carcasses ; 
Then if their tombstone, when they die, 
Be n't taught to flatter and to lie, 
There 's nothing better will be said 
Than that ' they 've eat up all their bread, 
Drunk up their drink, and gone to bed.' " 

But God never intended this for any man : at the feet 
of every even the humblest soul on earth he places a lad- 
der, and along its rounds of possibility reaching up into 
useful life and character he bids us climb. " Add to your 
faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, 
temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, 
godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to 
brotherly kindness, charity. ,, This is God's purpose for 
every man — that he make the most of himself, not merely 
growing in character, but enlarging his influence to the 
betterment of all around him. No man is ruled out : if 
any is a ne'er-do-weel or a good-for-naught, it is his own 
fault. God's voice is always calling ; his hands are always 
beckoning ; his grace is always drawing us higher and 
higher towards the stature of a perfect man. 

And fourthly, as Christians we have reason to rejoice 



10 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

because we belong to an honorable family. Blood tells. 
He is a poor sort of fellow who does not aspire to leave a 
name that his children will be proud of. Tuft-hunters are 
despicable ; but fortunate are all sons and daughters who 
can honor their forebears. 

After all, however, there is no lineage so honorable as 
that which belongs to all, to wit, " He was the son of Seth, 
who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God." 

Our human nature is ruined, but it is a splendid ruin. 
Will, heart, and conscience lie shattered and crumbling, 
like the stones and the capitals of some old temple of the 
gods. But in silence there walks the spirit of a disrobed 
Levite who looks forward to the promised restitution of 
all things. Man at his best was but a little lower than the 
angels ; man at his worst is still a child of God. 

But a Christian is something more ; not only has he 
God's breath in his nostrils ; not only is God's image im- 
pressed upon his never-dying soul ; but, as the Buddhists 
would say, he is a " twice-born man." In him the resti- 
tution is begun and will continue until the last stone of 
character is laid with shoutings of " Grace, grace unto 
it !" He is born from above, out of the sepulchre of sin 
and shame into newness of life. 

One more reason why those who have made their 
peace with God in Jesus Christ should rejoice is because 
they have a splendid outlook. 

It is a dreadful thing to have one's hopes and purposes 
all circumscribed within the narrow horizon of this pres- 
ent life. It is an inexpressibly dreadful thing to have no 
present interest in the great verities that reach out into 
the eternal ages. A man who is without God, and there- 
fore without hope, should never smile; his soul should 
be enveloped by the shadows of a ceaseless melancholy. 
Why is it that those who visit Paris always make their 



THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. II 

way behind the massive splendors of Notre Dame to the 
little building where the bodies of the unknown dead are 
exposed to view ? What is it that draws our gaze towards 
the sad features of the suicide ? We can scarcely under- 
stand the utter wretchedness that moves one to leap from 
" the ills we have to those we know not of." 

" Where the lamps quiver 
So far in the river, 
With many a light 
From window and casement, 
From garret to basement, 
She stood with amazement, 
Houseless by night. 

" The bleak wind of March 
Made her tremble and shiver, 
But not the dark arch 
Or the black flowing river ; 
Mad from life's history, 
Glad to death's mystery 
Swift to be hurled, 
Anywhere, anywhere 
Out of the world !" 

But for us the present hand-breadth of life is of little im- 
port. Its afflictions are but for a moment. Its tasks will 
be over in a day or two, and beyond — all things are be- 
yond. The milk and honey are beyond the wilderness. 
The vistas of eternity open up beyond the death-bed. 

If the heat and burden of the day seem sometimes 
unendurable, we may assure ourselves, as did Godfrey's 
Crusaders, who, footsore and discouraged, lifted their eyes 
and saw afar off the gleam of the domes of Jerusalem, and 
plucking up courage hastened on to enter its sacred gates. 
The domes of heaven are just yonder. " O mother dear 
Jerusalem, when shall I come to thee ?" 

These are some of the reasons why one who believes 



12 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

in Jesus Christ should rejoice evermore, why no stings 
should ever overcome him, why no dark spirit of melan- 
choly should ever dim the lustre of his eye. 

If there are those who say, " We have our pleasures 
though we are not followers of Christ," let them consider 
well whether they have any right to pleasure until their 
peace is made with God. How dare they rest upon their 
beds this night if it be certain that death before daybreak 
would bring them unprepared before the judgment bar of 
God ? Are not their pleasures dearly bought if to enjoy 
them they must silence the voice of conscience and reason 
and ignore the vast solemnities of the eternal life ? Is not 
their laughter but as the crackling of thorns ? Are they 
not like those miners of Cornwall who, at work beneath 
the sea, are driven from their labors in tempestuous times 
by the roar of the storms above them ? 

All the delights of an unholy life are shallow and fleet- 
ing, for 

" Pleasures are like poppies spread ; 
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snowfalls in the river, 
A moment white, then gone for ever." 

But the follower of Christ can well afford to make merry 
as he journeys heavenward. He has done the right thing; 
his conscience is clear ; the smile of God is over him. 

I point you to the cross, to the saving power of the 
blood. Let those dying lips of the Saviour speak to thy 
soul to-day, saying, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," and 
the change will be like the break of day. 

Then you and I, forgiven and happy, blessing God 
and making merry in our hearts, may journey on heaven- 
ward, with all the ransomed of the Lord who shall come 
to Zion at length with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads. 



THE TRYSTING-PLACE. 1 3 

THE 

TRYSTING-PLACE. 



" Enter into thy closet." Matt. 6:6. 

Jerusalem is said to have been builded " as a city- 
compact together." Its streets were narrow and its 
homes were crowded. The" city lay upon the crest of a 
mountain range ; and, surrounded by natural defences, it 
was a refuge for the people of all the neighboring coun- 
try in times of danger. On the occasion of the great 
annual festivals the Jews came crowding there from every 
part of the known world. We may well believe that 
millions of people were sometimes gathered in and 
around Jerusalem during these annual services, as it is 
written, " Thither the tribes go up." 

And here we notice a strange circumstance : though 
every available foot of space in Jerusalem was of the 
utmost value, and though the dwellings were small and 
crowded, yet there was probably not one home in Jeru- 
salem that did not have a little chamber up towards the 
house-top reserved for meditation and communion with 
God. It was to such an upper room that the prophet 
went when he laid himself upon the body of the widow's 
son and cried, " O Lord, let the child's soul return unto 
him again." It was to such a retreat that David went, 
tottering along the winding stairway, heart-broken and 
sobbing, " O Absalom, my son, my son, would God that 
I had died for thee !" 

Might it not be well for us to stand in the ways and 



14 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

search out the old paths and walk therein? We have 
apartments in our homes for every other use, but none 
for secret prayer. Yet let us not overmuch restrict the 
definition. The old poet Lovelace says, 

" Stone walls do not a prison make 
Nor iron bars a cage ; 
Minds innocent and quiet take 
That for their hermitage. ,, 

It is equally true that four walls do not a closet make. 
The important matter is that we shall be apart from the 
world. " The world is too much with us." In the quiet 
street we may shut to the doors by letting down our eye- 
lids, and be alone with God. Out on the stormy sea the 
sailor, swinging in his hammock, calls back the memo- 
ries of boyhood and repeats the words he learned at his 
mother's knee : 

" Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep ;" 

and his hammock is his closet. The Arab on the broad 
desert, as the sun sweeps across mid-heaven, falls upon 
his knees crying, "Allah, il Allah !" and the boundless 
waste is his closet. Our Lord, who was homeless, kept 
his tryst in solitary places by the lake-shore or under the 
shadows of the olive-trees. 

" Cold mountains and the midnight air 
Witnessed the fervor of his prayer." 

Three things are pre-requisite to the building up of a 
noble life and character, to wit: The knowledge of self, 
the knowledge of God, and the bringing of self into an 
at-one-ment with God. And these three are all to be 
had, better than elsewhere, in the trysting-place. 

I. To know ones self lies at the outset, But this is 
no easy matter. I make the acquaintance of everybody 
else more readily than of myself. I know my wife and 



THE TRYSTING-PLACE. 1 5 

children, my friends and neighbors, my acquaintance 
of an hour ago, better than I know this man. Nor will I 
ever know him better unless I go apart to be alone 
with him. 

(i.) In the closet I discover, to begin with, that / 
am; nor is this an unimportant matter. Bancroft says 
that one of the most notable discoveries ever made, in 
its bearing on human progress, was when Descartes, 
wandering alone by the banks of the Danube, cried out 
on a sudden, " Ich bin Ich !" In that moment, as he 
faced himself, his own individuality stood out against 
all custom, history, and tradition, and he saw himself 
a man. At the basis of life and character lies self-con- 
sciousness. I have gone a great ways when I have 
learned that I travel along through personal tasks and 
sorrows and responsibilities, alone, to the Judgment Bar 
of God. 

(2.) / always will be. We are accustomed to think 
it necessary that the certainty of death should ever be 
kept before us. " King Philip, thou art mortal !" was the 
cry with which the Macedonian monarch was awaked to 
the royal duties of each day. The thing that we have to 
have dinned into our ears is not that we are mortal, but 
that we are immortal. The rolling of the hearse through 
our streets, the waving of the black plume, ever remind 
us that we must die ; but the thing that we forget is that 
death does not end all. We live for ever. God's breath 
is in our nostrils and we are as immortal as the eternal 
God. We all have intimations of immortality, but amid 
the hurly-burly of life we give little heed. We must 
needs go apart to hear the still voice of the angel that 
speaks within us, " Thou shall live and not die !" 

(3.) I am 7iot what I ought to be. A man in a crowd 
may scoff at total depravity, but when he goes alone, by 



l6 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

himself, he knows there is something in it. The fops of 
the time of Louis XIV. were said to be young until they 
died of old age; but such a one in the solitude of his 
chamber, stripping off his disguises, washing off the 
powder from his wrinkles and baring his lean infirmi- 
ties, could not but perceive himself to be a decrepit old 
man. We are all the while posing before the world, 
seeming to be better than we are; we need to go into 
solitude, not to "see oursels as ithers see us," but to see 
ourselves as we are; and then we cry, " God be merciful 
unto us !" 

(4.) / have aspirations to be better than I am. The 
best as well as the worst that is in me is discovered in 
the trysting-place. Out in the mountains, alone and for- 
saken, the Psalmist lamented, "All thy waves and thy 
billows have gone over me ! Why art thou cast down, 
O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?" 
Then catching sight of a wounded deer, fleeing, with hot 
eyes and panting sides, an arrow quivering in its flanks, 
towards the babbling water, he cried, "As the hart pant- 
eth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 
O God !" In like conditions we find that while we are 
not what we should be, our hearts are an hungered and 
athirst to be more like God. 

II. To know God. If to know ourselves, as Thales 
said, is wisdom, then to know God is far better, for Jesus 
said, " This is life eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ 
whom he hath sent." But where shall we make his 
acquaintance? Where do we take hold upon the confi- 
dence of any friend? On 'Change? In the market- 
place? In the crowded street? No; but apart, in the 
solitude, where we pour out the story of our sorrows and 
know him as our friend. In like manner, if we are to know 
God, it must be by going apart to commune with him. 



THE TRYSTING-PLACE. 1 7 

(i.) We shall discover at the outset that "God is. 1 * 
Nor is this of little moment. No man indeed is an atheist 
in these days. Is it written, " The fool hath said, There 
is no God " ? Nay, but " The fool hath said in his heart, 
There is no God." That is, his wish is father to the 
thought. He seeks to eliminate God from his daily life. 
His walk and conversation are such as deny God. No 
man is intellectually an atheist, but we all make too little 
of God ; we idealize him, dogmatize about him, and for- 
get him. If we thoroughly believed in him, felt his 
being, apprehended him, what manner of persons would 
we be ! 

(2.) God is near by. We do not deny God ; we sim- 
ply put him afar off. St. Paul, preaching to the scientific 
men of Athens and with special reference to a certain 
Unknown God, said, " He is not far from every one of us." 
We have gotten too far away from our Bibles and be- 
come too familiar with the purely scientific conception of 
God's law. Force, the universal soul, a something or 
nothing that maketh for righteousness, an eyeless, armless, 
heartless ghost of a God, what is that to me, or what is 
that to any man ? No, we go apart and talk with God ; 
He comes and puts his hand upon us, looks down into 
our faces, answers our need. He is nearer now than 
touching, nearer than seeing, nearer than the nearest 
friend that ever stood beside us. 

(3.) We have certain definite relations with him. And 
these relations are filial. We are received by the spirit 
of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." It is much 
to be doubted if the sense of this blessed Fatherhood can 
come to us amid the fret and worry of our common life. 
The interchange of love among kinspeople is never in 
public places ; it is in the solitude that God speaks to us, 
saying, " My son! My daughter!" 

The Gospel of Gladness. 2 



1 8 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

(4.) He has great expectations concerning us. "As I 
live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in thy death." 
He has so loved us as to give his only-begotten Son to 
suffer and die for us. Here in the secret place, as we 
stand beneath his cross, the love that passeth understand- 
ing is revealed to us. 

III. We are now upon our knees and the nexus is 
complete. The soul is brought into oneness with God. 

(1.) Here is the beginning of spiritual life ; souls are 
new-born in the solitude. If Saul is converted at high 
noon on a dusty thoroughfare, he must needs be blinded 
for a season that so his spiritual birth shall be in the 
secret place. The beginnings of all life are out of sight. 
The foliage of the vine is woven in hidden looms, and the 
juices of the grape are distilled in subterranean labora- 
tories. So, for the most part, souls coming into the 
kingdom have the joyful beginnings of their higher life 
in the trysting-place. 

(2.) Here we renew our strength. To-night I shall 
pass out into the unknown country where no man has 
ever journeyed before me. How dare I venture into the 
land of darkness and of danger without a divine hand to 
protect me? And at daybreak I shall venture into an- 
other terra incognita, an unexplored land of duty and 
responsibility and danger. There will be pestilence walk- 
ing and arrows flying all about me. How dare I venture 
forth into that new day without first grasping the hand of 
the Almighty and Omniscient One? "I cannot go up 
hence unless the Lord go with me." 

(3.) Here I am invigorated by the Spirit and the help 
that I need for spiritual growth is given me. Nor is it 
possible for me to receive it so well otherwise or else- 
where. There must needs be insulation if the body is to 
be surcharged with electricity. In like manner the Spirit 



THE TRYSTING-PLACE. 19 

touches us when we are in the secret place. His voice is 
a still small voice, and, like the prophet, we must put our 
faces between our knees if we would hear it. 

(4.) And finally, here we take hold upon Omnipo- 
tence, and entering into participation of divine strength, 
we become co -laborers with God. The Lord Jesus, in 
his secret communings with the Father, pressed upon the 
long arm of the lever that uplifts the world ; and so do 
we in the secret place. 

To your knees therefore, O men and women cum- 
bered with much serving at home or in the market-place ; 
give yourselves time and opportunity to hear God saying, 
" Seek ye first of all the kingdom, and the rest shall be 
added unto you." To your knees in the secret place, O 
young men and women beginning life's voyage ; look 
towards the other shore and see how far the horizons 
stretch away. Life is a hand-breadth : eternity is for ever. 
To your knees, O fathers and mothers in Israel, whose 
hairs are white like the almond-trees in blossom. Hear 
God calling ; mark him beckoning to the joys which eye 
hath not seen and ear hath never heard. 

" More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 
Rise like a fountain ever night and day ; 
For what are men better than sheep or goats, 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
Both for themselves and those who call them friends? 
For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 



20 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



WILD OATS. 



" He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity. ,, 
(Revised Version) Prov. 22:8. 

About 1600 A. D. there lived in England an eccentric 
literary genius, by name John Lyly, who conceived the 
thought of expressing things disagreeable in periphrases 
and elegant circumlocutions. Death was called a de- 
parture from the fellowship of the living, or the paying of 
the debt of nature. Stealing was misappropriation, or a 
confusion of meum and tutcm. Lying was prevarication ; 
another favorite name for it was " malingering." This 
fashion of never calling a spade a spade was known as 
" euphuism." We have not wholly departed from it at 
this late day. A trace is found in the expression " sow- 
ing one's wild oats." The phrase is intended to compre- 
hend pretty much all the vices of young manhood ; and, 
like charity, it covers a multitude of sins, such as inebri- 
ety, personal impurity, profanity, baccarat, and if there be 
any other of the youthful vices too shocking for ears po- 
lite, this phrase embraces it. We are all sowing some- 
thing or other. The field is the world. Some go forth 
in their young manhood and womanhood bearing pre- 
cious seed — wheat for the world's hunger, the fine wheat of 
kindly lives and generous deeds — and they will doubtless 
come again with rejoicing, in the great garnering-time, 
bringing their sheaves with them. And there are others 
who go heedlessly sowing the wind, to reap the whirl- 
wind. You meet them reeling through the streets ; they 
are to be found carousing in upper chambers ; squander- 



WILD OATS. 21 

ing their time and earnings in the pleasures of the green 
baize field, or pursuing their way in the black and dark 
night to the house of the strange woman. Their lips are 
blistered with drink; red-eyed, thick-tongued, addle- 
brained, they are sowing wild oats. Nay, let us drop the 
metaphor : they are sowing iniquity, and they shall reap 
calamity. They are sowing phosphorus and tinder, and, 
except they repent, they shall of a surety reap the fires of 
hell. 

It would be well, all around, if there were less of sen- 
timentalism and more of sound common sense with re- 
spect to to the follies of our fast young men. We want 
more of Anglo-Saxon and less of Lyly's euphuism. In 
my judgment the fathers and mothers are, in many cases, 
largely responsible for the vices of their sons. At many 
an upper window to-night mothers will be watching and 
hearkening for the unsteady steps of the wayward ones. 
God be praised for mother's love ! But there is one thing 
that ought to be said: If your son is a scapegrace, a 
drinking, carousing, licentious good-for-naught, it be- 
hooves you at the outset to face the awful fact. It is a 
terrible thing to be the parent of a ne'er-do-weel. I know 
how it is: he comes home at midnight or towards the 
wee sma' hours reeling between two boon companions, 
and you help him to bed and tuck the clothes tenderly 
about him ; and next morning when he comes down, 
eyes red and brain ready to split with aching, you stroke 
the damp hair from his forehead and pamper and coddle 
him with sympathy and hot coffee, until he imagines him- 
self a poor misused fellow, and indeed something of a 
hero. Oh let him know the dreadful truth ! Let him 
know that, while your mother-soul is full of compassion, 
as the soul of a pure woman it loathes and abhors his 
bestiality. Let him know that you mourn for him as for 



22 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

one who has " Ichabod " writtten on his brow, " The glory- 
hath departed." 

Young women, moreover, ought to have a clear un- 
derstanding respecting this matter. There are some who 
think it a rather nice and clever thing to be familiar with 
scapegraces. Oh if they only knew, if they did but ap- 
prehend the thousandth part of what it signifies, they 
would rather press their lips to the surface of a white-hot 
cylinder, they would rather clasp hands with a leper, they 
would rather bathe in the reeking vileness of a cesspool, 
than give their friendship to a fast young man. 

Not long ago a mother called upon me with refer- 
ence to her wayward son who had brought shame upon 
himself and her. She was in great trouble ; but as to any 
frank statement of the case, she quite resented it. In the 
course of our conversation she observed, " Boys will be 
boys," and presently, " He '11 live it down, I am sure he '11 
live it down." Never were two greater mistakes than 
these. 

I. " Boys will be boys." If by that you mean that a 
young man is fairly entitled to get all the legitimate en- 
joyment that flows from good blood and healthful spirits, I 
say, Yea and Amen to it. We live in a pleasant world, and 
God means that we shall enjoy it. But if you mean that 
boys must or may take their turn at playing fast and loose 
with the moralities and proprieties and decencies, then I 
say a thousand times no ! There is not a particle of truth 
in it. Moreover it is a libel on vigorous and healthful 
young manhood. In the name of thousands and tens of 
thousands of manly young fellows whose hands were 
never soiled with money filched at the gambling-table, 
whose intellects were never befogged with drink, whose 
lips were never blistered by unlawful love, I protest against 
it. Paul had a young friend in Ephesus to whom he 



WILD OATS. 23 

wrote, "Be strong; quit thyself like a man: flee also 
youthful lusts. Let no man despise thee; let no man 
take thy crown." In that great city, with its stadium and 
amphitheatre and marble baths, the youth was surrounded 
by innumerable temptations ; he could easily have excused 
himself for indiscretion on the ground of custom. "They 
all did it." The " young bloods " of Ephesus reeled past 
him sowing their wild oats ; and where are they now ? 
What impression did they leave on the after ages? Tim- 
othy kept himself unspotted from the world, a vigorous, 
healthy, manly young man. There are multitudes of clerks 
and artisans, some sons of aristocrats, many young hand- 
craftsmen, who loathe the thought of dissipation. Their 
hands are steady, their eyes are clear, their laughter as 
pure as the laughter of a child. Cheery fellows they are, 
with clear consciences, who can look their mothers in the 
face and kiss their sisters' lips without leaving a sooty 
stain ; brave young fellows who are making a successful 
fight for manhood, panoplied with the whole armor of 
God. 

In Paul's eighth chapter to the Romans our attention 
is called to the two levels of life. 

(1.) The low level of the flesh. Here abide the self- 
pleasers, the mammonites, the epicures, all who are merely 
getting and enjoying, pampering the senses, and having a 
good time. Their life is not a whit better than that of the 
beasts that perish. Their aphorism is, " Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die." Bring out the skeleton and 
place it at the feast ! "Duni vivimus, vivamusT 

(2.) The higher level of spirit, where men and women 
live who realize that they were created in God's likeness, 
who believe in eternity and the endless life, who live not 
for themselves only, but for the good of others and the 
glory of God. Among the dwellers on this level are 



24 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

multitudes of young men who are fighting the Hydra, 
building character, and making their lives tell for truth 
and righteousness. 

For all such there are three safeguards. One is con- 
science: a sentinel stationed on the outer wall to give 
warning of danger. Alas for the young man who hurts 
his conscience or defies it ! " Look out for the engine 
when the bell rings !" 

Another is the sense of honor : 

"Whene'er you feel your honor grip, 
Let that aye be your border." 

When James Harper was leaving home to make his for- 
tune in the city, his mother's last word was, " My boy, 
you have good blood in you." So I say to you, young 
men, Be mindful of the fact that God's breath is in your 
nostrils and that you live for ever. 

And still another safeguard, and most important, is 
faith. "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith 
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the adver- 
sary." The young man who trusts to himself is bound to 
fail. There is no better motto than the old Saxon legend 
— a wine-glass with one foot broken, and upon it the in- 
scription, " Hold thou me up." 

II. We now turn to that other false sentiment, " He'll 
live it down." And I say here, as I said to that mother, 
He never will. Can a man take fire into his bosom and 
not be burned ? Sin always works an irreparable dam- 
age ; vice leaves a terrible residuum. 

(i.) It rots one's self-respect. It "eateth like a can- 
ker," like a gangrene, spreading to all the adjacent 
parts. 

(2.) It pollutes the memory. A man may be forgiven ; 
and when God forgives he forgets and casts the sin behind 
his back, blots it out, sinks it in the depths of the unfath- 



WILD OATS. 25 

omable sea; but the man himself must remember it John 
B. Gough was wont to say that he would give his good 
right arm if he could for ever banish from his mind and 
memory the scenes of his early youth. 

(3.) It indisposes the soul for better things; it crowds 
out all nobler purposes. You cannot sow Canada thistles 
in your field and expect a crop of wheat. Oh the dread- 
ful waste ! Youth is the seed-time. At fifteen John de 
Medici was made cardinal. At seventeen the learned 
Grotius began to practise law. At nineteen Lafayette 
distinguished himself as the friend of our republic. At 
twenty-two Newton worked out the law of attraction. At 
twenty-seven John Calvin wrote his " Institutes," which 
have formulated the doctrinal statements of all later years. 
At twenty- seven Napoleon took the bridge at Lodi and 
made himself the first captain of his age. And the best 
Man who ever lived, the noblest and manliest, died at 
thirty, saying of his life with all its noble purposes and 
vast ambitions, " It is finished." The world has a large 
place of usefulness for young men. 

(4.) It enslaves in the fetters of habit. The saddest 
walk I know is along the road from Tarn O'Shanter's inn 
to Alloway. On either side are the glories of Ayrshire 
and in the distance the banks and braes o' bonnie Doon. 
But one can only remember that along this road Robbie 
Burns staggered many a time, the fire of genius in his 
brain quenched by the fumes of drink. He has left his 
epitaph, written by his own hand, for us to ponder. Here 

it is: 

" Reader, attend, whether thy soul 
Soar fancy's flights beyond the pole, 
Or darkly grub this earthly hole 

In low pursuit, 
Know prudent, cautious self-control 
Is wisdom's root." 



26 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

(5.) It ruins the body. Vice hangs its banners on the 
outer walls. It reddens the eyes, blears the features, sod- 
dens the flesh, and unnerves the whole man. The good 
Book tells us that the bones of the wicked are full of the 
sins of their youth, and if you wish to verify that, go to 
the museum of any hospital and ask to see the bones of 
the wicked, and mark how they are twisted and scarred 
by sin. 

(6.) It destroys the soul. To be carnally minded is 
death. There is no room in heaven for the fast young 
man; if by some inadvertence he were to find his way 
there, he would be miserable amid the ascriptions of 
divine praise, and would be moved to cry out, " Where 
is Gehenna ? that I may go and mingle with mine 
own." 

A king, dying, imagined that he would be met on the 
other shore by a royal escort to lead him to a throne. 
He saw, however, in the distance a wretched hag, repel- 
lant beyond all imagining, who leered and ogled and 
beckoned and called, " Know you not me? I am your sin, 
and am come to abide with you for ever l" This is the 
worst of all — the soul is the author of its own endless pain. 
The wicked make their bed and must lie in it. 

It is comforting to know, however, that no matter 
what the mistakes of our past life have been, if we repent 
the Lord is ready to forgive. He is a great forgiver. 
And whether we have fallen into the temptations which 
are peculiar to young manhood or not, we have all sinned 
and come short of the glory of God. " Though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 

Nor is there any other way. In vain did Lady Mac- 
beth cry, " Out, damned spot !" or seek cleansing by con- 
trition. 



WILD OATS. 27 

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from this hand ? No, this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine." 

There is no deliverance from the shame and endless sor- 
row except at the fountain filled with blood drawn from 
Immanuel's veins. 

Then, being forgiven of the mislived past, let us put 
on the whole armor of God, and henceforth apply our- 
selves to the service of truth and righteousness. Do you 
remember the words of Sir Walter Scott when death had 
laid its hand upon him ? " Lockhart, be a good man. 
This is the sum and substance of all. Be a good man !" 
The poet-laureate has said the same thing in other words : 

" Howe'er it be, it seems to me 
Tis only noble to be good." 



28 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



JOB'S DAUGHTERS. 



" And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daugh- 
ters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their 
brethren." — Job 42:15. 

It is a long lane that has no turning. Job had suffered 
all the ills that human flesh is heir to ; but his captivity 
was turned at last. He had stood the siege like a man. 
No chastening, for the present, seemeth to be joyous but 
grievous, but in the end it worketh the peaceable fruits of 
righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. His 
bodily pains are now over; his blood flows warm and 
swift, and his flesh has come again like the flesh of a little 
child. His fortune, also, is amply restored to him : he 
has fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, and a 
thousand yoke of oxen. It is a true saying that godli- 
ness is profitable even for the life that now is. And his 
friends have returned to him. You remember the epi- 
gram : 

H Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why ? 
To find one good, you must a hundred try." 

Matthew Henry say that Job's friends were mere swal- 
lows; they flitted in the fall and were back again in the 
spring. And his family is again built up. He had buried 
all his children, but God had repaired the breach. He 
has seven new sons and three daughters. As to his 
querulous wife, perhaps she had died and another taken 
her place ; or rather let us hope she had learned her 
lesson and lived on. The patriarch's life was prolonged 
one hundred and forty years, and at length he was gath- 



JOB S DAUGHTERS. 29 

ered to his fathers like a shock of corn in due season. 
All 's well that ends well. 

We have to do particularly with these three daugh- 
ters. There must have been something notable about 
them or they would not have been mentioned. You have 
probably observed how little is said of the women in 
ancient chronicles. Nor is this silence without reason. 
Those were days of stern conflict and pioneering. It 
was the formative period, and the women were rocking 
the cradle and ministering to the needs of generations yet 
to come. They were not mentioned therefore unless 
there was some special occasion for it. 

I. These daughters of Job were remarkable for their 
beauty. " In all the land were no women found so fair as 
the daughters of Job." 

Whether beauty is a good gift or not depends. It 
depends upon the use made of it. If you have ever been 
at Holyrood you sought at once the romantic spot beneath 
the great arched window where Mary of Scots made love 
to her devotees. But up the great stairway there is a 
place of deeper interest still — a blood-spot on the floor of 
the hall where her secretary Rizzio died for love of her. 
Yonder is the little door through which the assassins 
crept ; yonder the bed-chamber through which they 
dragged him ; yonder the entrance at which the beauti- 
ful queen stood screaming out her fear and fury. Near 
by is the window at which she stood, conscience-smitten, 
while the mob beneath called out the name of Darnley 
and thrust upon her sight a banner bearing this legend, 
" Oh, Lord, avenge him !" Her husband at that moment 
was Bothwell who had murdered Darnley. Her beauty 
was like a gallows-noose to all who were entangled in it. 
What a casting away of power was here ! 

Yet beauty is a divine talent, and may be gloriously 



30 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

used for God. The orphan girl who was seized to be 
the consort of Ahasuerus had beauty and piety along with 
it. When her people were in danger and the voice was 
heard under her window, " Who knowest but thou art 
come into the kingdom for such a time as this ?" she 
communed with God and answered, " I will go in unto the 
king !" Never did woman care for her toilet more studi- 
ously than she that day ; never was beauty more dazzling 
than hers. Her life in her hand, she set out for the 
wassail-hall. The guards stood aside for the vision of 
beauty. She paused at the threshold. God help her 
now ! God help her to use her marvellous beauty for 
him. The portal is crossed ; she stands in sight of the 
revellers. Her coming there is like a burst of daybreak 
upon a boisterous night. Her beauty smites upon their 
eyes. There is a moment of bewildered surprise, then 
slowly the king lifts his sceptre : " Queen Esther, what 
wilt thou ?* Her life is saved ; her people are rescued 
from death ; her beauty has done its appointed work. 

The secret of beauty, after all, is the shining through 
of a consecrated spirit. I have passed a chancel window 
which seemed but a heterogeneous collection of frag- 
ments, as homely as the unsymmetrical features of the 
homeliest face. But I passed it again when the light was 
shining within, and lo ! there stood the Madonna and her 
Child. So it is that a Christlike spirit transforms the 
plainest face and gives it a nameless charm. 

II. These daughters of Job were remarkable also for 
their character. This appears in their several names, for 
in those times a name meant something. 

(i.) Jemima, an old-fashioned name, meaning " Light 
of the Morning." Let it stand (to answer our purpose) 
for the influence of young womanhood at home. She had 
two sisters, loving and helpful. She had seven brothers, 



JOB'S DAUGHTERS. 3 1 

and boys were boys in Job's time as well as now. You 
can't put an old head on young shoulders. Nor can any 
one living estimate the influence of a gentle sister among 
a group of boisterous lads. There was the old father, too, 
who had seen trouble, sore trouble. And that cross- 
grained, embittered mother. What an opportunity for 
this Light of the Morning to do a gracious work ! 

(2.) Kezia, meaning Cassia, or " Breath of the Gar- 
den." Let her stand for the influence of young woman- 
hood in social life. 

Society, whether we like the constitution of it or not, 
is a fact, a tremendous fact. And it furnishes a coigne of 
vantage for many earnest people who are minded to do 
good. Society is not everywhere as bad as we are given 
to understand. Those who have the entree of its charmed 
circle are not all decollete in modes and morals. In the 
time of the Roses virtue was a laughing-stock, marriage 
was a farce ; all bonds were loosened in social life. The 
cavalier was usually a rake, and his fair ladye no better 
than she ought to be. Rivers of blood were shed for a 
woman's glove. Bull-baiting and cock-fighting were aris- 
tocratic pleasures. Bishops and dignitaries sat down to- 
gether at the gambling-table. A man was not reckoned a 
gentleman unless he was carried to his bed from beneath 
the table of the banquet- hall. We have made a great ad- 
vance upon those times. Thank God, society is not what 
it used to be. Occasionally the old spirit creeps out, and 
namby-pamby pages come in chewing their canes, and 
queen's maids giggling and simpering ; but our best soci- 
ety is clean and sweet and oftentimes godly. Snobs and 
dandies and frivolous young women are not the truest 
expression of our social life. There is scarcely a larger 
province of influence than is here afforded to a young 
woman of broad culture and sound principle. Miss Hav- 



32 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ergal was devoted to society ; and with her sweet face and 
sweeter voice she sanctified it. In all her pleasures she 
lived in the spirit of her hymn : 

" Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to thee ! 
Take my voice and let it sing 
Only, always for my King." 

A visitor in the English House of Commons is struck 
with the lattice-work above the Speaker's chair, behind 
which are seen faces and figures flitting to and fro. These 
are English women, for no woman enters the House of 
Commons. But what matters that so long as a woman 
holds the sceptre of the British Empire ? In our public 
and civil life there are walls of separation by which our 
women are excluded from many duties and responsibili- 
ties. This, however, is of little concern if they wield the 
sceptre as queens in our social life. 

(3.) Keren-happuch, meaning " All - plenteousness. ,, 
Let Keren-happuch stand for the influence of young wo- 
manhood in the church of God. We are sometimes re- 
minded — as if it were occasion for reproach — that women 
constitute the majority of the church. This, however, is 
nothing strange. The wonder is, considering what jesus 
Christ has done for womankind, that any woman should 
hesitate for a moment to fall down and worship him. A 
missionary passing through Cairo in company with an 
accomplished Arab was amazed to see him, when ap- 
proached by a wretched old creature, a withered hag, spit 
at her and spurn her with his foot. He reproached him, 
only to meet with this reply : " Pooh ! she is only my 
mother !" As a rule, a pagan woman has no thought of 
equality in this life nor hope of it in the life hereafter, ex- 
cept on the chance of being born again and born a man. 
All that the women of Christendom have to-day of right 



job's daughters. 33 

and equality with their brother man is due to the gracious 
offices of that Christ who " was of a woman born," and 
whose disciples were instructed to teach that in his king- 
dom there is neither male nor female, but all are upon a 
level of perfect equality in Him. 

III. These daughters of Job were remarkable also for 
their inheritance. " Their father gave them an inheritance 
among their brethren." This was a rare thing in those 
days ; usually the eldest son received a double portion, 
and the younger sons made haste to carry off everything 
that was left. In our times the daughters share the best 
of everything with the sons, and above all they have equal 
hope and part in the priceless bequest of the gospel of 
Christ. 

This inheritance means, to begin with, life at the cross. 
All sons and daughters are equal here, and all alike being 
conscious of sin may here array themselves in fine linen, 
clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints. 

What else? The joy of service. In our time women 
are pressing to the front in Christian usefulness. None 
can complain that her spiritual power is "cabin'd, cribbed, 
confined. " 

What else ? Participation in the heavenly glory. 
" Now are we sons — and daughters — of God; and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be ; but when He shall ap- 
pear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 
Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, it never hath en- 
tered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him." 



Gospel of Gladness. 



34 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

A COWARD, 

AND WHAT BECAME OF HIM. 



" And Pilate gave sentence that what they asked for should be done." 
Luke 23:24 (R. V.) 



We all have an intense abhorrence of a coward ; and 
this is to the credit of our human nature. For in the 
whole range of nature and humanity what is more repel- 
lant ? Sir Walter Scott had a brother whom it is safe to 
say you never heard of. His name was Daniel. When 
a lad he went to the West Indies, and in a revolt among 
the negroes he showed the white feather and fled. His 
name was never mentioned after that ; if reference was 
made to him, he was called " our relative." When he 
died he was buried secretly and no weeds were worn for 
him. He was a coward. That tells the story. 

There was an old king of the Macedonians, by name 
Perseus, who for a similar reason was left out of the chron- 
icles. Once when the battle raged fiercely he fled ; he 
was overtaken by some of his captains and was found to 
have wrapped up his purple robe and placed it on the sad- 
dle before him, and was carrying his diadem under his arm. 
At sight of his pale face they turned back, one on the 
pretence of tying his shoe, another of watering his horse ; 
and thus he vanishes from view. 

It is bad enough to be a physical coward, but worse 
to be a moral coward, to show the white feather when 
principle is at stake ; to have convictions but no courage 



A COWARD, AND WHAT BECAME OF HIM. 35 

behind them ; to recognize the evil but lack courage to 
say no. 

Fix your eyes on Pilate. An o'er close contact with 
an evil world had ploughed furrows across his face ; sen- 
suality had left its impress there. He had come up from 
Caesarea a little while ago to keep peace during the great 
annual festival, for the Jews were a turbulent race. He 
made his headquarters at the castle of Antonia and doubt- 
less kept well in-doors ; for he was the best hated man in 
all Jerusalem and deserved it. Not long before he had 
built an aqueduct and taken money out of Corban, the 
sacred treasury of Israel, to pay for it. And when the 
people remonstrated he sent a band of Roman soldiers in 
Jewish disguise and slaughtered many of them. A little 
later he set up in Jerusalem a Roman standard on which 
was the name of an emperor to whom divine honors 
were paid. The Jews rose and besieged the Governor's 
gates until he recalled the idolatrous symbol and allowed 
them to have their way. And just recently, while a band 
of Galilean peasants were engaged at the altar, Pilate, 
having an accusation against them, sent a detachment of 
Roman troops and " mingled their blood with their sacri- 
fices. " No wonder the Jews hated him and gnashed their 
teeth at him. 

On the morning of this April day he was awakened 
bright and early by a beating at his gates. He doubtless 
arose from his couch with reluctance and muttering male- 
dictions on these 'troublesome Jews. They had brought 
a prisoner for trial. Last night, at the conclave of the 
Sanhedrin, he was accused of blasphemy, of making him- 
self equal with God. But no Roman magistrate would 
take cognizance of a theological indictment. So they 
must needs trump up charges against him. First, he 
had perverted the nation. Second, he had forbidden pay- 



36 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ment of tribute to the Emperor. Third, he had proclaimed 
himself as a king. Pilate must determine upon this case : 
there was no escape. And you, friend, must also decide 
what you will do with Jesus who is called the Christ. 

It is because of the connection of Pilate with this crim- 
inal case that he has come down through the centuries 
execrated in the words, " I believe in Jesus Christ who 
was crucified under Pontius Pilate." Now mark the cir- 
cumstances which aggravated his cowardice. 

(i.) He had heard about Jesus and knew him. His 
wonderful work and words and name were in the air. 
He had had, moreover, an interview with Jesus. He had 
asked him, "Art thou a king?" And Jesus answered, 
" Thou sayest it, but my kingdom in not of this world. I 
am come to reign in the province of truth." So he knew 
about Him. What will he do with Him ? 

(2.) Observe again, he had been warned concerning 
him. Not only had his conscience rung the alarm — as 
conscience warns us all — but a special admonition had 
been given him. His wife Procula had dreamed in the 
waking hours of the morning — the hour when Israel 
thought all dreams came true — and tradition tells us the 
dream. She saw a conflagration that consumed homes 
and temples and palaces, licked up forests and burned 
the heavens like a parched scroll, so that nothing could 
extinguish it. There were cries of the homeless and fear- 
stricken and dying. Then a lamb appeared, and as it 
lifted its eyes, all sounds were hushed.' It mounted the 
flaming pyre ; its side was pierced, blood gushed forth, 
and the fires were quenched. Then the lamb assumed 
human form and the appearance was, as the dreamer said 
" Of a man divine and passing fair 
And like your august prisoner there." 

Therefore she said, " Do no harm to that just man." 



A COWARD, AND WHAT BECAME OF HIM. 37 

(3.) Observe again how Pilate's cowardice was aggra- 
vated by his attempts at evasion and compromise. He 
entreated the people, " Why, what evil hath he done ?" 
He might as well have sung a lullaby to a cyclone. " Cru- 
cify him !" was the answer. " Crucify him !" And then 
he sent him to Herod — a happy thought. But Herod was 
too old a schemer to be caught napping. He would not 
be responsible for the decision of this perplexing case ; so 
he sent the prisoner back. Pilate must judge him ; so 
must you and I. Here is this Jesus, and what will he do 
with Him ? A great problem confronts him. He said, " I 
will chastise him and let him go." Oh shame upon him 
for a Roman magistrate ! The man is either guilty or in- 
nocent. If guilty, he should die the death; if innocent, let 
him go. Compromise never pays. " Nothing is settled 
until it is settled right." In 1787, at the making of our 
Constitution, the fathers were brought face to face with the 
slavery question. They compromised ; and we have been 
reaping the whirlwind ever since for their sowing of the 
wind. Then in 1820 came Henry Clay with his Missouri 
Compromise: " No slavery north of 360 30' except in Mis- 
souri." The " except in Missouri " was to be the rank- 
ling thorn for years in our country's side. Then in 1852 
Stephen A. Douglas proposed his Kansas-Nebraska bill. 
It was a compromise, and it settled nothing. The earth was 
rumbling even then. In 1861 the heavens reverberated to 
the thunder of our artillery, and the whole land was sod- 
den with tears and blood. It is true in religion as in pol- 
itics that no question is settled until it is settled right. No 
man nor church, no pastor nor teacher, can afford to split 
the difference in spiritual things. 

But what was the occasion of this man's cowardice ? 

(1.) To begin with, he was a trifler. He lived in an age 
of cynicism ; the foundations of religion were broken up. 



38 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

" On that hard Roman world disgust 
And stated loathing fell ; 
Deep weariness and sated lust 
Made human life a hell." 

And this man grew up in it. He had been a soldier. He 
had mingled with the soldiers at the camp-fire, cracking 
jokes about the gods and making sport of sacred things. 
And now, facing this divine Truth-giver, the irony of his 
retort — " What is truth ?" — was but the outcome of his 
pernicious habit. Some of you, perhaps, have been wont 
to trifle in like manner. Our college boys are singing 
the nonsensical and laughable rhymes of childhood to 
the tune of Antioch, on which our fathers bore aloft the 
praises of the Incarnation, "Joy to the world, the Lord is 
come !" But it should be understood that we cannot 
make light of any serious matter without ultimately pay- 
ing for it. 

(2.) Another reason for his cowardice : he was not his 
own man. He had no opinions of his own. He went to 
the people, to his wife, to the priests for advice. Oh, man, 
think for thyself! Do not farm out your opinions. Let 
no priest or newspaper, no synod or Sanhedrin, do your 
thinking for you. Let no man take thy crown. Quit 
thyself like a man. 

It behooves us to have convictions of our own. Let us 
live by them, stand for them, and be willing in their de- 
fence, if need be, to die. If ever we are in doubt we have 
a sure Counsellor, as it is written, " If any of you lack wis- 
dom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally 
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Jas. 1 : 5. 

(3.) Another reason for Pilate's cowardice was his 
sycophancy. The people touched the raw spot when they 
said, " If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend." 
The Caesar at this time was Tiberius, a jealous tyrant who 



A COWARD, AND WHAT BECAME OF HIM. 39 

owned Pilate body and soul. It would not do for Pilate 
to offend him lest he drop out of the line of promotion. 
At all hazards he must be Caesar's friend. 

What was the result ? A little while after Tiberius was 
off the throne and Caligula was on. ' And Caligula said, 
" Go bring me Pilate ; he must answer to certain charges 
concerning an aqueduct, a Roman standard, and a mur- 
der at the altar." And a little later Pilate was an exile 
and a wanderer. He ended his own life at Lake Lucerne ; 
and there is a legend that once a year a spectre rises from 
the water, wringing its hands as Pilate did when he dis- 
claimed responsibility for Jesus' death — wringing its hands 
and looking towards heaven. 

" By God abhorred, by man despised, 
Shunned by the fiends below, 
Where shall the wretch, to hide himself 
And hide his meanness, go?" 

But bide a wee. Let us not be too hard upon Pilate, 
for there may be some moral cowards among us. Let me 
give you a parting word, the motto of the Guthrie family 
" Sto pro veritateT — Let us stand for the truth, the truth 
against the world. There is nothing better than that. 

We are all in Pilate's place. The Lord Jesus stands 
in judgment before us. What are you going to do with 
Him ? What think ye of him ? Will you chastise him 
and let him go ? Will you send him to Herod ? You 
cannot shift the jurisdiction : he will evermore come back 
to you. Will you meet him with mock heroics, admira- 
tion of his manhood and rejection of his divine claim ? 
Out upon all mere sentimentalism ! The most cowardly 
thing that ever was said about Jesus was, " Ecce Homo /" 
Behold the man ! Let us be logical and sensible. Christ 
was what he claimed to be or else an impostor who de- 
served to die. He either bore our sins in his own body 



40 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

on the tree or else the world for nineteen centuries has 
been deluded by him. 

Here he stands before us. You and I must say wheth- 
er he is to be our Christ or not. It is cowardice to believe 
the truth and not be willing to stand for it, and to suffer 
and die for it if need be. This is a most important mo- 
ment, out of which may flow eternal issues for some of us. 

" Once to every man and nation 
Comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of truth and falsehood, 
For the good or evil side." 

Make up your minds as to this Jesus, and having formed 
your judgment, stand by it. Do right ! Do right ! Do 
right though the heavens fall, and God bless you in doing 
it! 



THE STORY OF A BLIND BEGGAR. 4 1 

THE 

STORY OF A BLIND BEGGAR. 



"And it came to pass that, as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a cer- 
tain blind man sat by the wayside begging." Luke 18:35-43. 

The Passover was the great annual festival of all Jew- 
ry. If we could have stood upon some high lookout we 
should have seen the pilgrim bands winding their way 
along all the thoroughfares towards the Holy City. One 
of the caravans, at this time, was notable for the fact that 
the Nazareth prophet was there. He was going to his 
death. As he walked before his disciples " they feared." 
A majestic sorrow was resting heavily upon him. Far- 
rar calls it the "transfiguration of self-sacrifice." He was 
passing under the shadow of the cross. His disciples all 
believed that he was going to Jerusalem to rule in regal 
splendor. In vain did he speak to them of his approach- 
ing death ; they could not apprehend it ; they " were not 
able to bear it." It was towards evening when the pil- 
grims reached the lower ford of the Jordan, crossed, and 
drew nigh to Jericho the key city of the Holy Land. As 
they approached the gate there were beggars along the 
way who called aloud for help. One of them was desper- 
ately in earnest, crying, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me !" For some reason Jesus answered not. 
He is always the prayer-hearer ; but sometimes he tarries, 
and we must abide his time. He entered Jericho with his 
disciples and spent the night with Zacchaeus the broker. 
The next morning he resumed the journey ; and as they 



42 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

issued from the western gate, the beggar who had been 
so importunate the night before was there with another 
wretched comrade, crying, "Jesus, thou Son of David, 
have mercy on me!" 

Let us fix our eyes on this man. 

I. Observe, he was a beggar. It is hard to be poor. 
Not many of us sympathize with Luther in his saying, " I 
thank God I am a poor man." The newspapers tell of a 
strange thing which happened yesterday at the Recor- 
der's office. A German lad who had left his home and 
widowed mother a few months ago was brought to the 
bar for stealing. It transpired that on reaching Castle 
Garden he set out in a vain quest for work, finding a few 
odd jobs and sending a dollar or two to his old mother in 
Germany. Then the boy was adrift again. Hungry and 
desperate, he went down to the river's edge, but his old 
mother's face seemed to be looking back at him from the 
water and he turned again to the streets ; then in sudden 
impulse he committed the lawless deed. It was proven 
on examination that at the time he was on the very verge 
of starvation ; and as necessity knows no law, the Recor- 
der acquitted him. One of the earliest memories of my 
boyhood is a pathetic song : 

" Pity, kind gentlemen, friends of humanity, 

Keen blows the wind and the night 's coming on ; 
Give me some food for my mother in charity ; 
Give me some food, and I will be gone." 

The world is full of such happenings and such appeals. 
Everywhere the struggle to keep the wolf from the door 
goes on. 

II. To add to his misery this beggar was blind. 
What could be worse? Do you remember Milton's 
lament in " Samson Agonistes," written after the light 
had vanished from his own poor e}xs ? 



THE. STORY OF A BLIND BEGGAR. 43 

Oh dark ! dark ! dark ! amid the blaze of noon, 
Irrevocably dark, total eclipse without all hope of day." 

If we must suffer loss of all our senses, let them go — taste, 
hearing, touch— but oh let us keep our eyes ! 

III. The climax of his misery, however, is reached in 
this — the beggar w T as blind in the valley of Jericho — the 
most beautiful spot on earth, the garden of balsam, the 
vale of fragrance, "the field of paradise." This expanse 
of beauty and fragrance and fruitfulness was the gift that 
Anthony selected for Cleopatra as the consummate token 
of his love. Bartimseus heard the people, as they passed 
by, commenting on the beauty of the morning, on the 
glory of the landscape round about, but he saw nothing. 
' * How fair the skies," said one, "and the pastures how 
green !" " How beautiful the vineyards, just purpling 
for the vintage !" Vainly he rolled his eyes and saw it 
not. 

We note the parallel in our relation with God. We are 
as penniless as Bartimaeus in the coin that passes current 
in the realm of spiritual truth, for all our righteousnesses 
are as filthy rags. We are as blind by nature as Bar- 
timseus, for we cannot see the wonders that lie beyond 
our finger-tips. Up to very recent days it was the cus- 
tom of the Persian princes to put out the eyes of all who 
could by any possibility lay claim to the throne. So the 
apostle writes, " The god of this world hath blinded the 
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the 
glorious gospel should shine unto them." The great 
verities are all around us — God, holiness, eternal glory — 
but these are to be spiritually discerned, and alas ! we 
have only fleshly eyes. 

Our carnal minds are enveloped in night " amid the 
blaze of noon." Nor is there any hope that we shall 
ever appreciate the sublime things of the spiritual world 



44 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

unless, perchance, the loving God with power to heal 
shall come this way. 

And here he comes ! Let us turn our eyes from the 
blind beggar to Jesus. For here is the incarnation of 
God. 

I. Observe, he is passing by. No wonder the beggar 
cries aloud, " Have mercy on me !" and with renewed 
earnestness again and again, " Jesus, thou Son of David, 
have mercy on me;" for, mayhap, it is his last chance. 
Now or never ! The suggestion to us is of " opportunity." 
The word itself is eloquent. It is from ob partus, that 
is, " at the entrance of the harbor." There is many a 
pleasure boat that sails gayly past the harbor, to and fro, 
and never enters it. There is many a galley laden with 
treasure that seeks one port and another but never enters 
this. Many a soul laden with glorious hope and possibil- 
ities anchors at the entrance until driven by the last tem- 
pest out upon the boundless sea for ever. Oh seize thine 
opportunity ! I would to God we were not so afraid to 
act upon a noble impulse. A business man knows his 
opportunity when a bargain is at stake, and does not hesi- 
tate to seize it. In the administration of Andrew Jack- 
son a representative of France approached him with the 
offer of an immense tract of territory lying along our Mis- 
sissippi valley. At that time France was involved in an 
imbroglio with England, and her exchequer needed an 
immediate replenishing. The offer of this vast area of 
territory was made for the consideration of fifteen millions 
of dollars — a mere bagatelle — but the bargain must be 
closed at once. It may be that the President strained his 
prerogative a trifle ; but in securing the Louisiana pur- 
chase he gained for us a territory larger than the entire 
area of the original colonies and the richest in the land. 
It takes genius to apprehend a bargain. It takes genius 



THE STORY OF A BLIND BEGGAR. 45 

to apprehend one's opportunity and grasp it. This is true 
in spiritual as in temporal things. I am here to-night 
with a flag of truce from the kingdom of heaven, to say 
in behalf of my Lord that if any man will this moment 
accept the benefits of the atonement of Christ he shall 
have eternal life. But the promise is only for this mo- 
ment. " To-day is the day of salvation." Alas if, heaven 
being within our very grasp, we lose it ! 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 

II. Observe that Jesus is standing still. What is it 
that has arrested his steps? Prayer. A beggar's cry. 
" Prayer moves the hand that moves the world to bring 
salvation down." I know what some people are saying — 
that prayer has merely a reflex influence, that it affects 
the petitioner, but has no power over the great God. 
Strange that we should be so much more sensible in tem- 
poralities than we are in spiritual things. How would it 
seem if a banking institution should notify its depositors 
that henceforth no more checks or drafts would be hon- 
ored ? " You may keep on presenting them ; it will be 
good exercise for you to keep walking to and fro, but as 
to paying, we have decided to do no more of it." Not 
so have we learned the promises of God. When he says, 
" Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you," he means every 
word of it. So in this case it was prayer that arrested 
the Saviour's steps. 

It was the right sort of prayer, however. We some- 
times " ask and receive not, because we ask amiss." As 
to this prayer of Bartimaeus, note that 

(1.) It was an intelligent one. He knew whom he was 



46 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

addressing: " Jesus, thou Son of David. " This "Son of 
David " was a Messianic tide, and its use showed that the 
suppliant believed in Jesus as the very Son of God. He 
might have been unable to set forth the rationale of prayer, 
but he grasped it. If we would pray aright we must at 
the outset apprehend that God is and that he is the re- 
warder of them that diligently seek him. 

(2.) This prayer was importunate. "Be still," they 
cried; " hold thy peace !" But he would not. The sword 
of Abd el Mourad is displayed in one of the mosques of 
Constantinople. If you express wonder that a weapon 
so effective should be a mere wooden thing carved from a 
plane-tree, the attendant priest will answer, "Ay, but you 
forget the arm of Abd el Mourad." So prayer is nothing 
at all except for the strength of a fervid soul behind it. 

(3.) It was a specific prayer. It went straight to the 
mark. There was no exordium nor peroration nor cir- 
cumlocution. One thing only did this beggar want, one 
thing only did he ask : " Oh that I might receive my 
sight !" He had ten thousand other wants, no doubt, but 
this was over all. 

When the Czar of Russia wished to build his railway 
from St. Petersburg to Moscow he sent for Winans, the 
American engineer, to make the survey. The route as 
outlined turned aside for hills and chasms, and sought 
contact with all towns and villages along the way. The 
Czar drew a straight line across the diagram from St. 
Petersburg to Moscow, saying, " Go straight there ; turn 
aside for nothing." And this is the right method of 
prayer. Let us come to the point. If we desire anything 
let us ask it. 

(4.) It was also the prayer of faith. How do we know 
that Bartimaeus had faith? Because he threw away his 
cloak when Jesus called him. All his earthly wealth might 



THE STORY OF A BLIND BEGGAR. 47 

have been, and probably was, in that poor garment. But 
he could well afford to part with it in view of the great 
benefit which he felt sure was coming to him. Throw 
away your tattered cloak, my friend, as you draw near to 
Christ — that vicious habit, that darling sin, your carnal 
ambition or self-righteous pride — whatever it is, away 
with it ! If you expect and desire your prayer to be 
heard, you will cast everything before the feet of God. 

III. Now observe Jesus with his hands outstretched 
and saying, ''Receive thy sight; thy faith hath saved 
thee." I would that we might have had an instantaneous 
photograph of Jesus in this attitude. It would be a per- 
fect picture of God. For what is God ? The scientist 
says Law. But Law means justice ; and justice to the 
sinner is eternal death. Others tell us " God is Light." 
But if that be all we may as well look elsewhere for help 
and comfort. Light never cooked a dinner for a hungry 
man. The coldest thing in the universe is the white solar 
ray. No, God is Love above all. That tells the story 
and satisfies us. 

Jesus said, ''Receive thy sight," and the eyes of Bar- 
timseus were opened. There were the oliveyards, the 
vineyards, the beauty of the skies above and the earth 
beneath, but nothing anywhere was so beautiful to him as 
the face of the Physician bending over him. 

And it is written he followed Jesus and gave glory to 
God. The pilgrim band moved onward to the Holy City. 
As they turned the spur of Olivet and came in sight of Je- 
rusalem those that went before him and those that fol- 
lowed after cried, " Hosanna ! Hosanna to the son of 
David ! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
Lord !" And in all that joyous company there was none 
with a heart more rapturous or eyes brighter with en- 
thusiasm or voice more resonant with grateful praise than 



48 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

Bartimaeus, who a little while ago was a beggar, blind, 
friendless, and hopeless, in the valley of Jericho. 

The sequel is not recorded, but it is easy to conjec- 
ture. He lived a few years, more or less, and then some 
kind friend closed his eyes, while others gathered about 
him said, " Bartimseus is dead." He had, however, but 
crossed the " covered bridge that leads from light to light 
through a brief darkness." And there his eyes were 
opened on the heavenly landscapes. " Oh the transport- 
ing, rapturous scene that opens to his sight!" But in 
heaven as on earth the fairest object he saw was Jesus' 
face, marred, but divinely beautiful. In humble gratitude 
he lives to-day, still " following him and giving praise to 
God," 



THE TWICE-TAUGHT LESSON. 49 

THE 

TWICE-TAUGHT LESSON. 

" For they considered not the miracle of the loaves." Mark 6:52. 



The quietest and least imposing of Chrises miracles 
was the feeding of the five thousand. There was no dis- 
play, no manifestation of power, as at the raising of Laz- 
arus or the healing of the ten lepers. It is safe to say- 
that only a few of the people were aware of what was 
being done until it was over. A lad with a basket, five 
loaves of bread, and a dozen men passing to and fro dis- 
tributing the food which they had received from Jesus' 
hands. No one knew how it was done. Here was the 
hiding of power. He might have waved a wand above 
the lad's basket and pronounced a mystic formula, but 
there was no demonstration of any sort. It was a beauti- 
ful apologue of providence. The same Christ is feeding 
us always, and in much the same way. A farmer goes 
out with his apron full of wheat and scatters it over the 
ploughed ground ; a little later he drives the reaper 
through the yellow harvest, and his garners are full. So 
wholly does God conceal himself in this matter that we 
scarcely think of him in connection with it. Yet he must 
needs watch over every kernel of grain, see that the sun 
duly shines upon it, that the showers are distilled from 
heaven upon it, that the chemicals of the soil are properly 
adjusted to it. He must protect it from insect and ver- 
min, from drought and torrent, that the handful may be- 

Gospel of Gladness. A 



50 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

come a binful and the multitudes be fed. It is always the 
same quiet miracle of the loaves. He might, indeed, 
despatch a procession of angels to scatter the wheat, send- 
ing before them an orchestra with harps and cymbals, and 
uttering his words of command to the scattered wheat, 
"Live and multiply;" so that in an instant the growing 
grain would appear above the soil and ripen in an hour 
into a yellow harvest bending its head to the sickle. 
Then we should exclaim, " Behold the hand of the Al- 
mighty !" Yet year by year all this is being done in the 
beautiful processes of natural law, so effectively that sum- 
mer and winter, seed-time and harvest, never fail; so quiet- 
ly indeed that heedless folk forget to say grace at table. 
We see the ploughman and the reaper, but how rarely do 
we see Jehovah behind them. We learn not the lessons 
of providence; we consider not the miracle of the loaves. 
But if the multiplication of the loaves was unimpress- 
ive, there were other events that day which greatly 
wrought upon the people's wonder: the eloquence of 
Jesus, his marvellous presentation of spiritual truth, his 
miracles of healing, tokens of his divinity every way. 
They were inclined to receive him as that Son of David 
who had been prophesied to come in the last times and 
restore the kingdom to Israel. " Let us rally around 
him," they said, " and escort him to the Holy City, where 
hundreds of thousands in attendance on the annual feast 
will join us in proclaiming him King of the Jews !" These 
were the whisperings that passed among them. The 
disciples, enthusiastic and ambitious to occupy places of 
honor in the new kingdom, readily fell in with the sug- 
gestion. All that was passing in their hearts was known 
to Jesus. He must thwart their intent. His high purpose 
was the redemption of the race. The throne of Judaea 
was no more to him than a child's rattle to an archangel. 



THE TWICE-TAUGHT LESSON. 5 I 

He therefore called his disciples aside and bade them 
enter the little boat that was tied to the shore and to be- 
take themselves to the other side of the lake. It is writ- 
ten significantly, " He constrained them to get into the 
boat." They may have remonstrated. The sky may 
have been dark with portents of the approaching storm. 
He was but a landsman ; they were sea -faring men and 
knew the dangers of the little lake. But he constrained 
them to go. Then, remaining with the people for a little, he 
quietly dispersed them and betook .himself to the solitude 
of the mountain. Into that Holy of Holies we may not 
intrude. It was his wont in this manner to hold frequent 
intercourse with the Father alone. The forest was his 
closet, the solitude was its closed door, and the sky above 
was its open window towards Jerusalem. Here we leave 
him. 

The story now resolves itself into a drama in three 
scenes. 

I. The storm. While Jesus was in the mountain alone 
the disciples, in their little boat, were moving out towards 
the middle of the lake. The night closed around them. 
There was a dead hush. The air was heavy and oppres- 
sive. Not a breath stirred the sails. They knew the 
meaning of this ominous calm ; nor had they long to wait. 
Down through the gorges came the rushing wind ; the 
shrouds whistled, the timbers creaked ; they sprang to 
the sails and lowered them, then to the oars ; and until 
the fourth watch of the night they toiled for their lives. 

" If our Lord were only here !" they cried. " Oh if 
our Lord were only here !" Once before he had been 
with them under similar circumstances. The wind had 
burst upon them while he lay asleep in the stern of the 
little boat ; and, weary as He was, they were reluctant to 
disturb him until the worst came to the worst ; then they 



52 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

bent over him, crying, " Master, Master, we perish !" 
Half rising and taking in the situation at a glance, he 
said, " Why are ye so cowardly, O ye of little faith ?" 
Then facing the tempest, his garments and flowing hair 
blown backwards by the wind, he stretched forth his 
hands, saying, " Peace, be still I" and so quieted his angry 
child. Little wonder that they longed for his presence 
now. But it was for this very reason that he had brought 
them into the storm, that they might learn the lesson of 
his providence. In our very childhood we are taught to 
long for the fleshly presence of our Lord : 

" I wish that His hands had been placed on my head, 
That his arms had been thrown around me, 
And that I might have seen his kind look when he said, 
* Let the little ones come unto me. ' " 

It was for this that He said, " It is expedient that I go 
away." We must trust him in his absence. " I will not 
believe," said Thomas, " except I put my finger into the 
print of the nails." If we thus insist he may condescend 
to convince us. " Reach hither thy hand and thrust it 
into my side, and be not faithless but believing," but, for 
all this, the greater blessing is upon the higher faith that 
grasps the invisible. " Blessed are they which not having 
seen have yet believed." Oh for a simpler, deeper, sub- 
limer faith in the invisible, intangible, yet present and ever 
helpful Christ ! In whom, though now we see him not, yet, 
believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
II. The rescue. It is written that while they were 
toiling at the oars through the weary night "he saw them." 
He was at the least three miles away, the night was dark, 
the billows were high, and the foam was tossing over the 
little boat ; but through all he saw them. Oh wonderful 
eyes of the Lord ! They pierce through infinite space. 
All the roofs are lifted off before them ; they see the pain, 



THE TWICE-TAUGHT LESSON. 53 

the plotting, the shame and heart-ache; they see it all. 
Wonderful, wonderful eyes of the Lord ! How comfort- 
ing to us, who seem at times so far away, to know that we 
are never out of his sight ! Let us be assured that our 
present trouble and all the uncertainties of our future are 
plain to him. 

" So I go on, not knowing : 

I would not if I might. 
I 'd rather walk with God in the dark 

Than go alone in the night ; 
I 'd rather walk by faith with him 

Than go alone by sight." 

He not only saw them, but in the fourth watch of the night, 
the darkest and most hopeless hour, he came to them 
walking on the sea. The hieroglyph of the ancient Egyp- 
tians to denote impossibility was two feet upon the water : 
but the thing which is impossible with men is not only 
possible but easy for God. The sea is his and he made 
it. Let Xerxes move back his throne, lashing the tides 
in vain fury. God made the boundaries of the mighty 
deep and said, " Thus far shalt thou come and no farther, 
and here let thy proud waves be stayed !" 

And when the disciples saw him they were afraid, say- 
ing, " It is a spirit !" His figure was outlined against the 
dark sky. They were seafaring men and afraid of the 
supernatural, the sort of men who in our times nail a 
horseshoe to the mast. This fear of the supernatural be- 
trays a wrong adjustment in our moral nature. We are 
all prone to it. These fishermen had faced many a storm, 
but at sight of that dim figure against the sky their limbs 
shook and their flesh crept. Ah many a time when we 
have been in dire distress of pain or sorrow God has come 
to us in such strange guise of providence that we also have 
been afraid of him. 



54 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

And he said unto them, " Be of good cheer : it is I ; be 
not afraid. " Our providences are all strange to us now. 
We consider not the miracle of the loaves and are scarcely- 
more mindful of the miracle of the storm. Oh for more 
faith in providence ! One day we will understand. 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform ; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea 
And rides upon the storm.' ' 

III. The swift voyage. We marvel at the speed with 
which our " ocean greyhounds " are in these times travers- 
ing the seas. Six days and a trifle over to cross the 
Atlantic ! But never was a passage like this before us, for 
in the twinkling of an eye, when they had taken Jesus 
aboard, the little ship was at the place whither they 
went. 

We are still learning our lesson. God is a great help- 
er in every sphere and department of human life. 

(i.) In the hard struggle for success. He who, in a 
legitimate calling, is striving for a competency or a for- 
tune, may attain his end much more certainly by receiving 
Jesus on board the ship. It is a true saying that " Godli- 
ness is profitable for all things," not less for a man's tem- 
poral weal than for his spiritual life. 

(2.) In the stress of adversity. When God's children 
are in trouble he loves to deliver them. His ear is open 
to their cry, and nothing is too hard for him. A band of 
Covenanters in old Scotland, men, women, and little chil- 
dren, driven from their conventicle and fleeing for life, as 
they climbed the hills saw just across the ravine the bloody 
Claverhouse and his men. They were helpless to escape. 
It was evident that an hour would seal their doom. The 
old minister knelt down in their midst and prayed, " O 
God, this is the hour of thine opportunity. We are help- 



THE TWICE-TAUGHT LESSON. 55 

less unless thou come. These weary bairns can flee no 
more. We cast ourselves upon thy mighty power. Twine 
our enemies around these hills. O Lord, confuse them 
and deliver us ! Cast the lap of thy garment over puir 
auld Saunders and these frail bairns." Then the thing 
happened which men laugh at — the incredible thing, a 
special providence. The mist crept up the valley while 
v the little band of Covenanters were praying, rose higher 
and higher, until it stood as an impenetrable wall between 
them and bloody Claverhouse. God had indeed confused 
their enemies and twined them among the hills. He had 
cast the lap of his garment over his little ones. Yet why 
should this seem wonderful ? It is but the story of our 
daily bread if we would only believe it. Or must we be 
brought into the storm that we may consider the truth of 
providence ? Is the tempest a needs be ? 

(3.) In agonizing for salvation. All night long, nine 
weary hours, they toiled at the oars : their hands were 
blistered, their strength exhausted, their hope was gone. 
Then he came. And thus it ever is. 

When we have done our utmost God must save. And 
what is salvation but his most special providence ? We 
are delivered not by might nor by power, but by the 
Spirit of the Lord. Our part of the doing is simply to 
believe. " This is the work of God," said Jesus, " that ye 
believe on him whom God hath sent." 

(4.) In the last hour. Blessed is the man who, when 
he enters Charon's boat, finds that the boatman is not 
Charon but Christ. " I will not fear, for thou art with 
me : thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." In London 
Tower is an inscription cut upon the wall by some prisoner 
who may have spent his life in darkness and suffered death 
centuries ago on Tower Hill : 

"A passage perilous maketh a port pleasant." 



56 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

There will be no storms in the better land, and no need to 
learn there the lesson of providence. It will be clear to us 
that every moment while we were on earth he was caring 
for us. And heaven will largely consist in the apprehen- 
sion of this truth. Our heaven would begin here and now 
if only we could believe thoroughly in God. 



TWENTY REASONS. 57 



TWENTY REASONS 

FOR BELIEVING THE BIBLE TO BE 
THE WORD OF GOD. 



" But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast 
been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them ; 
and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith 
which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

2 Tim. 3:14-17. 

The young- man to whom these words were addressed 
by the aged Paul was pastor of the Christian Church in 
Ephesus. He was surrounded by temptations there, 
Ephesus was the chief emporium for a considerable por- 
tion of the trade of Asia, a resort for fashionable people 
who wished to lose themselves in the whirl of vice and 
sensuality, and it was also a distinguished seat of pagan 
learning. The young pastor had, therefore, to meet all 
the temptations incident to a life of sordid enthusiasm, 
carnal pleasure, and worldly wisdom. But against these 
he was fortified by the training which he had received, 
not merely from Paul, his spiriual foster father, but from 
his mother Eunice, and that other excellent woman his 
grandmother Lois. From these he had gotten a faithful 
tuition in the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make 
men wise unto salvation and to serve them in times of 



58 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

moral conflict as a weapon — " the sword of the Spirit 
which is the Word of God." In this letter, full of faithful 
counsel and admonition, the aged apostle bids the young 
pastor be mindful of those rudiments of faith and morals 
which had been thus imparted to him in early life. 
" Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned 
and hast been assured of." How many a youth in the 
fret and hurry of our metropolitan life has need of similar 
counsel. There never was a time in the history of the 
world when temptations addressed the young and unwary 
in voices so numerous and alluring as in these days. 
The life of commerce makes its vociferous claims; the life 
of pleasure beckons from the doorways and calls from the 
windows along the way ; and presumptuous folly arrayed 
in the garb of wisdom cries aloud at the corners of the 
streets that the old truths are superannuated, that the 
Bible is untrustworthy, that religion is but a refined form 
of superstition, and that the Zeitgeist is more important 
than the Spirit of God. Now let the hallowed past stand 
forth to help and strengthen ! Let memory recall the 
voice of the dear mother who " just knew, and knew no 
more, her Bible true," and the voice of the village preach- 
er, so far away in the glamour of the vanished past, com- 
mending the Cross, the old-fashioned Book, and the pre- 
cepts of a holy life. O young man, continue thou in the 
things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, 
knowing of whom thou hast learned them ! Be not 
carried away with every wind of doctrine and destructive 
criticism. Stand by your principles. Be loyal to your 
convictions ; and let the truths which have commended 
themselves to the world for centuries be yours to serve as 
an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, until you are 
quite confident that our forebears have been grievously 
duped, history imposed upon, and the race ensnared by 



TWENTY REASONS. 59 

the Christian faith. Think well before leaving the old 
landmarks. Hold fast your Bible. To leave that is to 
be without an anchor in the storm. Remember and give 
heed to the lessons of long ago ! 

If, however, we are to affix our faith to the Scriptures 
and cling to them amid the storms of opposition and 
iconoclastic wisdom, we must be able to give a reason for 
doing so.* An earnest man ought never to be at a loss 
when asked why he believes the Scriptures to be the 
word of God. It is my purpose here to enumerate some 
of our reasons for holding to the old Book. The method 
of this argument is cumulative. One point may not be 
conclusive, but twenty may have the force of progressive 
approach to demonstration. Our glance at these consid- 
erations must be merely cursory and suggestive. It is 
believed, however, that their total force will be convincing 
to earnest and unbiassed minds. 

i. There is an a?itecede?it probability of a revelation 
from God. It is implied from our relations with him. If 
he is our Father he would scarcely leave us in doubt as to 
the great problems which reach out into the eternal ages. 
It would seem that a good father must speak to his sons 
and daughters in their distress and bewilderment, telling 
them definitely of his love, his justice, his purposes con- 
cerning them. A good king puts up finger-boards to 
guide wayfarers through the forest and along the per- 
plexing roads. If God is our King shall he not tell us 
how to reach the kingdom ? Is it reasonable to suppose 
that if, as the pagan Aratus said, " We are also his off- 
spring/' he would leave us without an answer to our 
questions "Whence?" and "Whither?" Plato lamented 
that he was adrift upon a raft with no rudder at his hand 
nor star above to guide him, yet he ventured the hope 
that some time the gods would give the bewildered race a 



60 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

good stanch boat. This was but the expression of the 
universal instinct. If there is a God it would appear that 
somewhere there must be a clear and distinct revelation 
of him. There is a Bible somewhere. Where ? We be- 
lieve, for reasons that follow, that our Scriptures are this 
Word of God. 

2. The Scriptures make this claim. And let it be 
noted that among the world's sacred books there is no 
other that arrogates to itself a real and inerrant divineness. 
The Bible is full of a " Thus saith the Lord." Its claim of 
inspiration, like its doctrines of God and Immortality, is to 
be read everywhere between the lines. The claim is made, 
moreover, in explicit terms, as where it is said, "Holy men 
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," 
2 Pet. 1:21; and again in our text, "All Scripture is given 
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." The word inspiration is theopnus- 
tos ; literally, God-breathed. All Scripture thus God- 
breathed is true, inerrantly true and profitable for us. 

If it be said that this claim is not sufficiently definite 
or conclusive, we answer that the proof thus furnished 
within its own pages of its plenary inspiration is as com- 
plete and satisfactory as that which it furnishes to substan- 
tiate the immortality of the soul or the divineness of Jesus 
Christ. It is as complete indeed as its proof of any of the 
great doctrines which we regard as vital to the integrity 
of the Christian faith. 

3. The Truth of the Bible, its absolute, faultless truth. 
The claim of such inerrancy is made not for the Scriptures 
as they are current among us, but for the original auto- 
graphs as they came from the pens of the holy men who 
wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God. If it be 



TWENTY REASONS. 6l 

said that no one living has ever seen that original parch- 
ment, we answer, By the same token no living man has ever 
seen the original Christ. We have the same reasons pre- 
cisely for believing in the errorlessness of the original copy 
of the written Word as for accepting the sinlessness of the 
Incarnate Word. Both alike have suffered in " transcrip- 
tion. " All copyists of the Incarnate Word have alike mis- 
represented him in their walk and conversation ; yet even 
the mistakes of believers in their earnest yet inadequate 
efforts to copy his perfect life and character are evidences in 
favor of the guilelessness of Christ himself. In like manner 
the small errors, literal and numerical, which have crept into 
the Scriptural text in the process of transcription through 
these hundreds of years do but furnish strong presumptive 
proof of its original inerrancy as it was received from the 
divine mind for transmission to men. If there had been 
errors in the original, misstatements of fact, contradictions 
of science, fabulous history, it would be incredible that the 
wisdom of the world should not have discovered them 
long, long ago. It seems clear, however, that the errors 
in our received versions are such as were most likely to 
come, nay, such as could scarcely have come otherwise 
than in the process of transcription. We boldly affirm 
that as yet the destructive critics have not been able to 
produce a single error or discrepancy which is not most 
reasonably and fairly accounted for in this way, not one 
which can be logically or conclusively or reasonably 
traced to the original autograph. ' 

4. Its Literary Worth. Let dilettanti scholars speak 
with modesty in disparagement of the Scriptures in view 
of the fact that the wisdom of the centuries conspires to 
praise them. Sir Isaac Newton said, " We account the 
Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy." 
John Milton said, " There are no songs comparable to the 



62 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, 
and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach." 
Daniel Webster said, " From the time that at my mo- 
ther's feet or on my father's knee I first learned to lisp 
verses from the sacred writings they have been my daily 
study and vigilant contemplation. If there be anything 
in my style or thoughts to be commended, the credit is 
due to my kind parents in instilling into my mind an early 
love of the Scriptures." It is fair to say that by uni- 
versal consent there is no book in universal literature 
which at any point of literary merit approaches the 
Scriptures. 

"A glory gilds the sacred page 
Majestic like the sun ; 
It gives a light to every age, 
It gives but borrows none." 

5. Its Unity, Here are sixty-six books upon a large 
variety of themes embraced under the general head of re- 
ligion : the work of forty writers of various nationalities 
and of all grades of natural ability and culture, speaking 
divers tongues, writing at intervals along a period of 1,600 
years, representing all degrees of racial development from 
barbarism to noblest enlightenment. And here is the 
strange thing : these sixty-six books thus composed when 
bound together constitute one harmonious and consistent 
whole. Shall we say that this is a fortuitous circumstance? 
The folly of such a statement would immediately be rec- 
ognized in any other sphere. If forty persons of differ- 
ent tongues, temperaments, and degrees of musical cul- 
ture were to pass through the organ loft of this church at 
long intervals and strike sixty-six notes, which when com- 
bined should yield the theme of the grandest oratorio 
earth ever heard, the man who would regard that as a 
fortuitous happening would by universal consent be 



TWENTY REASONS. 63 

deemed a fool. The conclusion would be irresistible that 
one controlling mind was behind it. 

6. Its Completeness. The uninspired word Jims at the 
end of the book is as true as if it were in the body of it. 
There was to be no adde?zdum, no erratum. The book 
when finished with the testimony of the last evangelist 
was closed for ever. That word finis means, " I am com- 
plete ; let the future ages supplant or supplement me if 
they can !" 

The text-books that were used when we were boys 
and girls at school are all obsolete. Such as are in cur- 
rent use by our children must be revised from year to 
year ; the latest editions must be had in every case. But 
strange to tell, the first edition of the Scriptures is the one 
in universal demand. Our desire is to get back to the 
oldest, to the original, for what must be in spiritual things 
the best authority for this and every age. In other words, 
marvellous to tell, the Bible written so long ago must 
have been adapted to all future progress — a book full and 
complete, measuring out to the entire race its supply for 
all kinds of moral needs from the beginning to the end 
of time. 

7. Its Freshness. No other book bears reading over 
and over and over again. We tire of the noblest and best 
on a third reading. But these marvellous pages are like 
spices, which the more they are rubbed give forth the 
more of fragrant sweetness. Old Dr. Elliot sitting by the 
window with a Bible on his knees, being asked what he 
was reading, answered, " The news, always the news." 
The poet Goethe said, " The Bible becomes more and 
more beautiful the more I study it." 

8. Its Antiquity. It was in large portion an old vol- 
ume when Cecrops founded Egypt. We speak of Chau- 
cer as the father of our literature, but the Book of Job 



64 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

was three thousand years old when Chaucer opened up 
his " well of English undefiled." Dr. Franklin read the 
book of Ruth aloud in a literary club at a time when infi- 
delity was rife. " Where did you find it?" exclaimed his 
hearers. Great was their amazement when he answered, 
" This pastoral was written twenty-five hundred years be- 
fore the discovery of America." 

9. Its Indestructibility. The fires have not been able 
to burn it. There have been eras of persecution when 
the great cities of the world were lit with bonfires of Bibles ; 
and through all these centuries the hot fires of adverse 
criticism have been kindled against it ; yet out of them all 
this blessed Book has come without the smell of fire upon 
it. The Bible records no miracle more wonderful than its 
own survival. Other books of moral truth have either 
yielded to criticism or grown obsolete through the prog- 
ress of the ages. Our libraries are cemeteries. Here 
are three epitaphs which are at first sight scarcely recog- 
nized — Novum Organum, Hydriotaphia, Eikonoklastes. 
Who cares for them now? Yet Novum Organum, by 
Bacon, introduced the inductive system of philosophy. 
Hydriotaphia, by Sir Thomas Browne, was a thesaurus of 
general information such as the world has seldom seen. 
And Eikonoklastes, by John Milton, was his manifesto 
against the divine right of kings. Thus the great books 
die, but one book lives ! — lives in spite of persecution and 
the rasure of time — lives gloriously and will survive all. 

10. Its Propagation. It is printed in 300 languages 
and scattered over the world like leaves of the tree of life. 
The interest which it excites in the universal mind, and 
by which it is separated infinitely from all books of human 
origin, is attested by the fact that within forty-eight hours 
after the new version was issued two million five hundred 
thousand copies were disposed of. The telegraphic wires 



TWENTY REASONS. 6$ 

were kept busy, to the exclusion of other — and strangely 
enough, less important — work, while transmitting the four 
Gospels from New York to Chicago in a telegram of 
more than one hundred thousand words. 

ii. Its Influence on Character, "It is the power of 
God unto salvation to every one that receiveth it." We 
may not explain the subtle metaphysical force in this vol- 
ume — a force that grips hold of the sifiner and somehow 
transforms him, changes his heart, conscience, brain, and 
will, and makes him a new man every way. The Chan- 
cellor of Queen Candace was converted by reading the 
53d chapter of Isaiah ; and Lord Rochester, a vicious in- 
fidel, was converted some centuries later by reading the 
same portion of this book. And this sort of thing is go- 
ing on the world over all the time. Has any other book 
such power? Do the Shastras, the Zenda vesta, the Koran, 
the Analects of Confucius turn men about in this way, 
reform them, transform them, and set their faces towards 
truth and righteousness and heaven and God ? An old 
Highlander said to Claudius Buchanan, " I cannot argue, 
I cannot present any theological facts or reasons, I can- 
not explain the process or philosophy of revelation ; but I 
know this, that when I was a man with an ungovernable 
temper and an evil character, this Book got hold of me 
and quelled the tiger in me" 

We will abide the issue : stand on a Broadway corner 
and take a hundred men at random from among the 
passers-by who say that they believe in these Scriptures, 
and take another hundred at random from those who re- 
ject them ; let the two companies stand facing each other 
and contrast their characters. We will abide the issue. 
The best men of the world to-day are, as a rule, conspic- 
uously and undeniably those who believe in the Scrip- 
tures of God. 

The Gospel of Gladness C 



66 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

12. Its Power over the Nations, Take a map and 
draw lines separating the nations that receive the Bible 
from those who are without it, and you have divided be- 
tween barbarism and civilization, between thrift and pov- 
erty, between charity and selfishness, between tyranny 
and freedom, between light and the shadow of death. 

The three prominent nations of the earth to-day are 
America, England, and Germany. Our Government is 
indisputably founded on the principles of the Bible. The 
preamble of our Declaration of Independence was bor- 
rowed from Paul's sermon on Areopagus, and our whole 
political fabric is permeated with the moral teachings of 
Christ. England has a Christian queen who explicitly 
avows that the Bible is the secret of her country's great- 
ness. And as for Germany, at the close of the Franco- 
Prussian war Pere Hyacinthe declared to his people that 
the reason for their defeat lay in the fact that every Ger- 
man soldier marching against Paris had a Bible in his 
knapsack. 

13. Its Code of Morals. It is superfluous to say that 
the ethics of the Scriptures are furnishing all the moral 
standards of the world. The courtesies, proprieties, hu- 
manities of our civil, social, and domestic life are traced 
to the Sermon on the Mount. The jurisprudence of every 
civilized people on the globe is taken from the Decalogue. 
The Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount are the 
two brief summaries of Scriptural morality, and between 
them stands Jesus Christ, the exemplar of both these 
symbols and the only perfect Man the world ever saw. 

14. Its Doctrines. The Bible is the only book in ex- 
istence that boldly and conclusively touches the great 
spiritual problems. It is the only book that makes a dis- 
tinct utterance with reference to the nature and character 
of God, and to the nature and character and destiny of 



TWENTY REASONS. 67 

man. It not only sets forth the great moral and spiritual 
truths, but it so simplifies them as to bring them within 
the grasp of not merely philosophers but the humble folk. 
As it is written, " Except ye become as little children ye 
shall in no wise see the kingdom of God." And a curious 
fact is this : the truths thus presented are capable of codi- 
fication. No one ever heard of a doctrinal system be- 
longing to Islam or Confucianism or any other religion 
except ours. There is a system of truths represented in 
the oecumenical creeds of Christendom which is substan- 
tially — nay, absolutely — identical among all the multitu- 
dinous families of the church militant. These truths are 
strung together in logical and coherent order, as if in- 
tended to furnish thus a necklace of pearls for the adorn- 
ment of the Bride of God. 

15. The Science of the Scriptures. And here I am 
aware we are setting foot on delicate ground ; for it is a 
somewhat shop-worn claim of a certain class of scientific 
people in these times that the Scriptures are as far as pos- 
sible from accuracy at this point. It stands, nevertheless, 
that no scientific statement in the Scriptures has ever 
been disproved ; while on the other hand they furnish the 
basis for cosmology, anthropology, philology, geology, 
astronomy, and every other important science. If it be 
claimed that the Scriptures be not en rapport with cer- 
tain scientific hypotheses of these times, we answer that 
if it were we should scarcely regard it as divine, for God 
does not guess at anything. It is worthy of note in this 
connection that in 1801 there were more than eighty 
theories before the French Institute with respect to nat- 
ural science, every one of which was alleged to contradict 
the Bible. Where are they now ? Every one of them 
has died the death ; but the old Book lives. 

It used to be said that the Bible was all wrong in the 



68 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

statement that " the host of heaven cannot be numbered." 
This was alleged to be one of its scientific blunders. Hip- 
parchus counted the host of heaven and made them 
1,022; Ptolemy, two centuries later, substantially agreed 
with him, making the total 1,026; but as the scope of 
vision was artificially enlarged some thousands or hun- 
dreds of thousands more came into view. At length 
Lord Rosse's telescope enabled the human eye to see 
something like four hundred millions. To-day the stars 
of heaven are as innumerable as the sands of the seashore. 
There are more solar systems within our line of vision 
now than there were fixed stars in the ancient times. The 
skies are filled with nebulae, clouds of star-dust! The 
Bible was right: the host of heaven cannot be numbered. 
Thus it is found, as in every other particular where the 
Scriptures have been assailed by criticism, that they did 
but anticipate the approved results of science in these 
after days. 

16. Its History. All other chronicles — as those of 
Caesar, Herodotus, and Thucydides — are but the records 
of an episode or period of events ; but the Bible is the one 
universal history. It carries us back through the nations, 
past the earliest communities, beyond the primitive chaos, 
to the remotest origin of things. " In the beginning, 
God." 

The attempts to cast reproach on Scriptural history 
have been vain. In Genesis 9 : 27 we have the cardinal 
truth of ethnology set forth in the seemingly common- 
place words, " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall 
dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his ser- 
vant." This is a statement of literal historical truth. In 
the tenth chapter of Genesis we come upon a catalogue 
of names as dry as a city directory, which is in fact 
a procession of the nations, and yielding a more compre- 



TWENTY REASONS. 69 

hensive survey of history than was ever written else- 
where. And in every particular where the records of this 
venerable Book have been aspersed the researches of the 
archaeologist among the monuments of the past have 
seemed to vindicate them. 

17. The Prophecies. Seventeen of the books of the 
Bible are prophetic. Of the tens of thousands of predic- 
tions which they contain, not one has miscarried yet. 
Many of them remain to be fulfilled ; but the obser- 
vation of the past gives us abundant reason to believe 
that every one shall be fulfilled. The owl and the bittern, 
dwelling amid the ruins of innumerable cities on which 
the curse of divine judgment was pronounced in olden 
times, declare the truth of the divine prophecies. Not 
one faileth. 

18. The Tone of Authority. It might be supposed 
that a book dealing with truths that lie beyond the evi- 
dence of the senses would speak with some reservation. 
But there is no if or perhaps in our Bible ; it speaks with 
a voice of authority. And indeed our souls demand this. 
With respect to the great problems we wish no guesses, 
we will accept no peradventures ; we must know. Nor 
can we know except by a definite divine ipse dixit. It is 
thus the Scriptures speak, " Yea and amen." " Thus saith 
the Lord," "Verily, verily I say unto you." To put an if 
into the Decalogue or the Sermon on the Mount or the 
Apocalypse, or to put a perhaps in the third chapter of 
John with its announcement of the great truth of Redemp- 
tion, would be to destroy the force of all. The Bible, 
professing to announce the great truths of eternity, must 
utter forth no uncertain sound. It speaks as the oracles 
of God. 

19. Its Adaptation to Human Wants. There is no ex- 
perience in life where the Scriptures do not yield us help 



70 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

and comfort. In pain, sorrow, poverty, discouragement, 
the anguish of death, it helps and holds us up. This was 
beautifully stated by Coleridge in his words " It finds 
me." Wherever we are, whatever we do, however we 
suffer, this blessed Bible finds us. 

20. Its Plan of Salvation. This is, after all, the 
crowning proof of its divineness. In every human heart, 
down below all other wants and aspirations, there is a pro- 
found longing to know the way of the spiritual life. 

The whole world is all the while crying, " What shall 
I do to be saved ?" Of all the books in the world the 
Bible is the only one that answers this universal cry. 
There are others that with more or less correctness set 
forth the precepts of right living ; but there is none that 
suggests a way of blotting out the record of the misspent 
past or of escaping from the penalty of the broken law. 
All through the Scriptures, from the Garden of Eden to 
the Apocalyptic vision of the City of God, walks the ma- 
jestic figure of One who claims to be the deliverer of the 
soul from sin. In the midst of the sacred oracles stands 
the Cross throwing its shadow four ways towards all the 
horizons of human life. Out of this blessed Book comes 
the voice, heard always and everywhere, " He that believ- 
eth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved " — saved here 
and hereafter, saved from the shame and bondage and 
penalty of sin. 

It is of little use, however, to study the Scriptures from 
the outside, or, by viewing them objectively, to prove their 
divineness. A Bible on the shelf is a vain thing. There 
are multitudes of people who know the Scripture by heart 
yet in their hearts have none of it. The truth is to be 
had not by looking at it in the distance but by appropria- 
ting it, by assimilating it, as bread is eaten and becomes a 
part of our physical life. The best proof of inspiration is 



TWENTY REASONS. 7 1 

that which a man gets by making the blessed Scriptures 
his own and feeling their power in his own inward peace 
and the renewal of his daily life. There is no evidence so 
satisfactory as that whereof the aged evangelist wrote, 
11 That which we have heard, which we have seen with our 
eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have 
handled of the word of life, declare we unto you." A 
lifeboat is a beautiful piece of mechanism. The ingenuity 
of man has taxed itself to make it a marvel of strength 
and symmetry. But if a shipwrecked mariner, clinging to 
a spar in mid-ocean with the waves beating over him, 
were to look at the lifeboat drawing near as a wonderful 
mechanical contrivance or as a mere thing of beauty, he 
would be regarded as a desperately foolish man. We are 
all in a bad case spiritually — the danger is of eternal 
death. We have scarcely a spar to cling to. And this 
Bible is our lifeboat. If we feel the need of salvation, in 
God's name let us honor and receive it. Nay, let us cry 
aloud, " Save me ! Take me aboard of this stanch ship 
and carry me safe to land !" The Scriptures are indeed 
the ''power of God unto salvation" to every one who 
thus receiveth them. To the unsaved they are as a store- 
house of wonders ; but to such as believe they are as the 
mighty arms of God. Oh that they may hold us and 
save us all ! 

" Within this sacred volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries. 
Happiest they of human race 
To whom the Lord hath given grace 
To read, to think, to fear, to pray, 
To lift the latch and ope the way." 



THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

A GENUINE INSTANCE OF 

FAITH CURE. 



" Thus saith the Lord, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy 
tears: behold, I will heal thee." 2 Kings 20:5. 

We are here introduced to a sick-chamber. King 
Hezekiah is in the very article of death. The physicians 
have given him up. In the ordinary course of nature 
there is no hope of recovery. He has every possible 
comfort : a pillow of down for his aching head, purple 
hangings about his couch, attendants with quick eyes for 
every want. The physicians move about his room with 
anxious faces. Ask them about their patient and they 
will answer, " He is a very sick man, but we are hopeful 
of pulling him through. " They know the issue but are 
reluctant to announce it. No one dares to tell Hezekiah 
that death is at his door. Oh the mistaken kindness of 
keeping the great secret from those who are on the bor- 
ders of the unknown world ! 

The door opens softly and a man enters, clothed in 
the hair-cloth robe of a prophet. Would that we might 
have seen him : his serious face, his wonderful eyes — eyes 
that had gazed through heaven's open windows and seen 
the King in his beauty, that looked upon the Christ seven 
hundred years before His advent coming from the hills of 
Edom with garments dyed red in the wine-press of re- 
demption. The man approaches the bedside of the dying 
king. He has a message, and it is not easy to deliver it, 
for this good king is his own familiar friend. But the 



A GENUINE INSTANCE OF FAITH-CURE. 73 

shortest way is the best ; he cannot break it gently : 
" Thus saith the Lord, set thy house in order, for thou 
shalt die." Dread message ! And " the king turned his 
face to the wall." In that moment none must see the 
tokens of the struggle within him. We also must pres- 
ently face the dread announcement. Will it appall us ? 
What is our thought of death? Is it, as Abd-el-Kadah 
said, " a black camel kneeling at the gates of all " ? Or 
is it, as Milton says, " the golden key that opes the pal- 
ace of eternity "? 

While the king lies with his face towards the wall it is 
evident by the moving of his frame that some mighty 
emotion has taken hold upon him. He has passed the 
possibility of human help and is reaching up after the 
strength of God. He is praying. At such a moment all 
are impelled to pray. The most ungodly cries, " O God !" 
when sudden death confronts him. It is an intuition that 
God alone can be a help to the needy in the supreme hour 
" when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against 
the wall." 

Let us keep our eyes for a while upon this praying 
king. He is pleading for the restoration of his health. 
And this is the prayer which multitudes who scarcely 
pray for anything else are offering in these days. Heze- 
kiah's petition will prevail, though the pallor of death is 
now upon his face, and we shall presently see him going 
about his customary tasks. So here is a genuine case of 
faith-cure. And, where there is so much of quackery and 
foolish superstition, it is a relief to find a valid, indisputa- 
ble instance of the prayer that heals. We may profitably 
devote some attention to it. 

I. Our first consideration is, in general terms, that 
God hears prayer and ansivers it. He announces him- 
self distinctly as the hearer of prayer. No soul in trouble 



74 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ever called on him and had reason to complain, " There 
is none that regardeth." He keeps no suppliant waiting 
at his gates. His ear is ever open to the supplication of 
the least of his little ones. 

And he answers. His honor is expressly pledged to 
it. Here is the promise : "Ask, and it shall be given you ; 
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you." And then, as if he had surmised that some 
would question the full scope and boundless reach of the 
promise, he doubled it by reiteration : " For whosoever 
asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him 
that knocketh it shall be opened." If there had been an if 
or a perhaps or ^peradventnre^ there might be room for 
questioning; but the word is "shall," and God's honor 
and veracity stand back of it. 

The prayer of healing falls under the general rule. 
There is nothing unique or peculiar about it. Its answer 
is subject to the usual conditions. It is no harder for 
God to cure diseases than to do anything else. Nothing 
indeed is too difficult for him. During his ministry on 
earth it was his pleasure to heal what physicians would 
call desperate cases. When he was in a certain place a 
ruler came to him saying that his little daughter twelve 
years old, the light of his eyes, was dying. She was 
already past all human help. Christ arose and went with 
him. On reaching the home he bent over the dying 
child and said, " Talitha cumi /" and immediately she 
arose and sat up. 

As he descended from Olivet after the delivery of his 
wonderful Sermon on the Mount, the cry of a leper was 
heard. His was a hopeless case. Standing afar off with 
his finger upon his lip he called, " Unclean ! Unclean !" 
and then, " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst cleanse me !" 
And immediately the Lord said, " I will; be thou clean." 



A GENUINE INSTANCE OF FAITH-CURE. 75 

And the leper's flesh came to him as the flesh of a little 
child. 

At the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration a boy lay- 
writhing in a convulsion. An evil spirit possessed him. 
No power on earth could heal demonism. The disciples 
had tried their skill upon this lad in vain, and their ene- 
mies at the moment were deriding them. The Lord came 
into the midst saying, " O ye of little faith, how long 
shall I bear with you ?" Then to the demon within the 
child he said, " Come out of him ;" and in an instant the 
restoration was complete. 

While he was passing along the street, on one occa- 
sion, a poor woman who was afflicted with a chronic mal- 
ady, and who had spent all she had upon physicians and 
was no better for it, forced her way through the crowd 
and touched the hem of his garment. Such was the heal- 
ing virtue in him that, hopeless as her case was, the warm 
blood of perfect health began at once to flow through her 
veins, healed by a touch ! And the Master said, " Daugh- 
ter, go in peace ; thy faith hath saved thee." 

By the wayside a blind beggar sat, so hopelessly 
blind that no oculist on earth would have undertaken his 
case. As Jesus passed by he cried, " Jesus, thou Son of 
David, have mercy on me." " What wilt thou?" "Oh 
that I might receive my sight !" " Receive thy sight !" 
And he opened his eyes and followed Jesus, glorifying God. 

All these and multitudes of others w r ho appealed to 
Jesus were beyond all human help. But no case was too 
difficult for this Good Physician. He gloried in exercis- 
ing his power on the hopeless ones. And he is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The prayer for healing, 
like all other prayers, when made in pursuance of such 
conditions as are divinely prescribed, is sure of a hearing 
at the throne of the heavenly grace. 



?6 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

II. If the prayer for healing is to receive an answer, it 
must be the prayer of faith. What is faith ? More than 
a mere belief that we shall receive what we ask for. It is 
the vital bond of union between the soul and God. It is 
the blending of the human with the divine life. A peti- 
tioner who has faith may ask what he will and it shall be 
done unto him. 

It must be understood, however, that sickness may be 
i?i pursuance of the divine will. * It is a grievous error to 
suppose that our pains and maladies have never a good 
purpose in them. " No chastening for the present seem- 
eth to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless aftewards it 
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which 
are exercised thereby." If it be God's pleasure that we 
shall suffer for some good end, we may not presume to 
cross his beneficent and holy will. Paul had some myste- 
rious affliction which he called his " thorn in the flesh. " 
It may have been a chronic malady; perhaps, as some 
suppose, an acute disease of the eyes. Whatever it was, 
he entreated most earnestly to be relieved of it. As he 
says, " I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart 
from me." And with what result ? " He said unto me, 
My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made 
perfect in weakness." How did Paul receive this strange 
answer to his prayer? " Most gladly therefore,'' he says, 
" will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of 
Christ may rest upon me." 

Observe again that death is a divi?ie ordinance. None 
of God's angels has been so maligned as this bright-vis- 
aged messenger. How dismal our fate would be were we 
compelled to live on and on for ever, bearing our burdens 
and bowing more and more under our decrepitude, yet 
never transported to a higher and better life. No, blessed 
be God for the ordinance that dooms us to die ! 



A GENUINE INSTANCE OF FAITH-CURE. J? 

"To die, to end 
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks 
That flesh is heir to — 't is a consummation 
Devoutly to be wished." 

The prayer of faith must be at every point and every- 
way acquiescent in the divine will. Only a son or daugh- 
ter of God can offer it; and the proof of our filial relation 
with God is in this spirit of acquiescence. For if we are 
his children we know that all things are working together 
for our good. Let us get the pattern of our prayer at 
Gethsemane. There the cup of purple death was pressed 
to the lips of the Saviour, and he cried in an agony of 
supplication, " O my Father, if it be possible let this cup 
pass from me !" And again, and then once more, " O 
my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, thy will be 
done !" All prayer, including the prayer for healing, must 
be offered in the spirit of this supplication. The wisest of 
Christians cannot improve upon it. 

III. The prayer for healing must be reasonable. The 
principles of common sense are. to be applied in the reli- 
gious province as everywhere else. We are invited, when 
approaching the mercy-seat, to produce our cause and 
bring forth our strong reasons. King Hezekiah was able 
to give three reasons for greatly desiring the restoration of 
his health : He had no heir — for Manasseh was not born 
until three years after this event — and the line royal would 
be cut off. Still further, his kingdom was under assault. 
The hosts of Sennacherib had laid siege to Jerusalem. 
The king would fain deliver his country from the invader. 
" Lord, spare me until I shall have put the Assyrians to 
flight !" Moreover, he was in the midst of a great reform. 
He had opened the temple and greatly beautified it. He 
had restored the Passover feast, which had passed into 
utter disuse. The pilgrims were now wending their way 



78 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

from all directions towards Jerusalem to worship God. 
He had destroyed the serpent idol, crying, " Nehushtan ! 
It is a brazen thing I" He had restored the Psalter to its 
place in public worship and had arranged a canon of the 
Scriptures. " Now, Lord, spare me," he prayed, "until I 
shall finish my work !" It is much to be feared that many 
supplications for healing are made with no good reason to 
sustain them. Why should a useless life be lengthened ? 
Why should a sinner, dying in his sins, be spared by a 
gracious God who foresees that recovery must simply 
mean the deepening of his shame and the darkening of his 
doom ? If any among us is afflicted with any malady let 
him, before he asks for recovery, be sure that he can 
give a valid reason why he should desire it or the Lord 
grant it. 

Then, too, a prayer for healing must pay deference to 
the use of mea?is. This is in the line of common sense. 
The king, having made known his desire to God, called 
upon his physicians to do their best for him. The rem- 
edy used was a poultice of figs, the usual application for a 
virulent ulcer in those days. In case of desperate illness 
let us also pray and send for the doctor. Faith without 
works is dead. Had a " Christian Scientist " been pres- 
ent in the sick-chamber of Hezekiah when the physician 
applied the fig-poultice, he would in all likelihood have 
pronounced him a fool ; but if Solomon had been there 
and expressed his mind, he would probably have said that 
there was indeed a fool on the premises, but it was not 
Hezekiah. Religion should go with common sense. If a 
man pray for bread shall he expect the Lord to put a loaf 
in his hands ? Nay, rather, the Lord will strengthen his 
sinews, give him a spade, and say, " Go dig and earn 
your bread." As a rule, the answer to prayer is through 
second causes. The most preposterous of dupes is the 



A GENUINE INSTANCE OF FAITH-CURE. 79 

man who folds his hands, opens his mouth, and expects 
the Lord to provide for him. 

Now the sequel. Isaiah had turned to leave the sick- 
chamber, had reached the outer court of the palace, when 
a message came from God. He straightway returned and 
delivered it. " Thus saith the Lord, I have heard thy 
prayer, I have seen thy tears; I will heal thee." The 
king's life was prolonged fifteen years. His first act was 
to visit the temple, where he offered up a joyous thanks- 
giving. And at once he proceeded to improve his new 
lease on life. He not only continued the reforms which 
he had undertaken, but " he made a pool and a conduit 
and brought water into the city" — fresh water for the peo- 
ple of Jerusalem. That was a great thing to do. 

But at length the supplement of his life was over, and 
death came after all. Did the voice say again, " Set thy 
house in order, for thou must die" ? Nay, there was no 
need. He was ready for the coming of the King. Are 
we ready? A housewife expecting a guest would pre- 
pare her house by sweeping out the last particle of dust, 
leaving no spot on the white curtains, and arraying her- 
self in her best apparel. There is no telling ; perhaps the 
King will come this night to us. Let us prepare ourselves 
by the cleansing of our souls from sin — and for this the 
fountain is opened at Calvary — and by having our work 
done. 

While Dr. Janeway's friends were about his dying 
bed, praying for his recovery, he said, " Keep me not 
from my crown. Voices are calling, hands are beckon- 
ing. Oh could you but see ! Could you but see what 
I am seeing now ! Keep me not from my crown, good 
friends ! I long to go. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly !" 



80 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



"IF" AND "WHY?" 



"So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the 
prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto 
all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opin- 
ions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then fol- 
low him. And the people answered him not a word." 

i Kings 18: 20, 21. 

Here was an event of colossal importance. A con- 
tests of gods ! Things had been going wrong in Israel. 
There was a confusion of worship. The king was essen- 
tially a weak man, and his consort was strong-minded and 
an idolatress. She had brought from her Assyrian home 
the rites of Baal and Astarte. The high hills were smo- 
king everywhere with pagan sacrifices. The people were 
bewildered. Whom were they to worship as the true 
God? 

The slopes of Mount Carmel were thronged by the 
multitude who had come to witness the Lord's contro- 
versy. Far below on one side rolled the sea ; on the other 
was the rocky bed of Kishon, dry these many months 
and seeming like a chasm storm-riven in the earth. Far 
yonder was Esdraelon, the ancient battlefield of Israel. 
And on all sides famine ! The leaves of the forest were 
withered and charred. The vineyards and olive-yards 
were brown. The meadows were scorched as if by the 
fiery breath of some offended deity. It was now three 
years and more since Elijah had suddenly appeared in 
the king's palace and abruptly said, " As the Lord liveth, 
it shall not rain except by my word." The days passed 
and the months, and the heavens were as brass. No 



u IF ?; AND "WHY?" 8 1 

rain, no rising mists from the Mediterranean, no gracious 
morning dews. It was a land of utter desolation that met 
the eyes of those who, gaunt with hunger, looked off from 
Carmel's slopes that day. 

The priests of Baal were there, four hundred and fifty 
in number. They represented the State religion. There 
was still among the people a half-shamed clinging to the 
worship of that God who with a stretched-out arm had 
brought them forth from the land of Egypt, the house of 
their bondage. It was hard to forget the pillar of cloud, 
the quails, the manna, the smitten rock, the brazen ser- 
pent, the tottering walls of Jericho. It was hard to forget 
how in Esdraelon yonder the stars in their courses had 
fought against Sisera. But it was no easy matter to resist 
the allurements of the State religion. Baal was wor- 
shipped with imposing rites and ceremonies and splendid 
processions. The new faith was under the patronage of 
the queen ; the courtiers had no alternative but to say, 
" Baal is the God." The people aped the court. The 
temple of Jehovah was practically deserted. The shrines 
of the Assyrian deities were thronged with worshippers. 

To-day there was to be a settlement ; Baal and Jeho- 
vah cannot both be God. Let them defend their respect- 
ive claims. The Lord's altar shall have a bullock, and 
Baal's altar shall have a bullock, and the devotees of each 
shall call upon their deity ; and the God that answereth 
by fire let him be God. The preparations are made ; the 
priests of Baal are there in force, and over against them a 
solitary prophet of the Lord. Just before the signal for 
the controversy the prophet stands forth to admonish 
the people: " How long halt ye between two opinions ?" 
The figure is that of a bird hopping from twig to twig — an 
expressive picture of fickleness and indecision. " How 
long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, 

The Gospel of Gladness. 5 



82 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

follow him ; if Baal, then follow him !" And all the peo- 
ple answered, " It is well spoken." 

It was indeed well spoken. And how mightily the 
Lord vindicated himself that day ! The priests of Baal 
in the morning began their cry, " O Baal, hear us !" and 
continued it until the sun had crossed mid-heaven. 
Hoarse and frenzied, they still called upon their idol; but 
there was no voice nor any that regarded. The hollow 
caves and beetling cliffs returned their cry, " O Baal, hear 
us I" As the day wore on, the prophet of the Lord stood 
forth and taunted them with rude and merciless irony. 
" Cry aloud, for he is a god ! Either he is on a chase, 
or upon a journey, or engaged in conversation, or, perad- 
venture, he sleepeth and must be awaked !" Still they 
persisted in their vain entreaties until the sun sank to- 
wards the western sea, as if to symbolize the discomfiture 
of the fire-god. Then Elijah stood forth in the presence 
of the multitude and made his simple prayer, " O God of 
my fathers, hear me this day and let all the people know 
that thou art God !" There was a moment of breathless 
silence. Then it came — a blazing fleece out of heaven ! 
Nearer, nearer, until it fell upon the altar. It consumed 
the bullock ; it consumed the stones of the altar ; it lapped 
up the water in the trenches. Silence for a moment more, 
and then a loud cry, " The Lord is God !" Ten thousand 
voices caught it up and ten thousand more, until there 
was a rolling flood of acclamation, " The Lord is God !" 
Old Kishon heard it and sent it rolling back. The rocky 
slopes and beetling cliffs of Esdraelon, that had reverbe- 
rated to many a battle shout, returned the cry. The sea 
yonder was calmed as if to listen — " The Lord he is the 
God ! The Lord he is the God !" 

But if the Lord be God, why do ye not follow him ? 

Mark the impressiveness of the logic. There was no 



"if" and "why?" 83 

evading it. So long as any there could remember the 
scene, the dripping altar, the frenzied priests, the quiet 
voice of the prophet, the descending fire, it seemed im- 
possible to withhold homage from Jehovah as the only- 
living and true God. He had sublimely vindicated his 
majesty. There was no need of ever again reopening the 
controversy. Those who returned from Carmel to their 
homes said one to another that evening, " This has set- 
tled it for ever and ever : the Lord alone is God." They 
went away convinced. In a month they had measurably 
forgotten ! In a year the fires were kindled again upon 
the high places in honor of Baal, and the people in cir- 
cling dance went round about the altars worshipping the 
fire- god ! 

Blame them not. Alas for the fickleness of our human 
nature ! We are not men and women, but birds hopping 
from twig to twig. We have seen the Lord's controversy, 
have marked the vindication of his majesty over and over 
again ; and our impressions have vanished u like the snow- 
fall in the river. ,, We too have our idols, wealth, honor, 
and pleasure, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Is there 
any god in our pantheon that can help or deliver us? 
They are all put to shame every day, yet we go on ser- 
ving them. What have they ever done for us? Have 
they built up character ? Have they relieved suffering ? 
Have they dispelled ignorance? Have they helped or 
gladdened the troubled soul ? Have they made the world 
better in any way? " O Baal, hear us !" but there is no 
voice nor any that regardeth ! And still we go on kiss- 
ing our hands and devoting our lives to our blind and 
helpless idols. 

If the Lord be God, why do we not follow him ? Here 
are two suggestive words, " if" and " why." 

" If the Lord be God." But there is no if. 



84 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

(i.) There is no if in nature. Stand in the solitude 
and cry aloud, " O Jehovah, answer me if thou art God !" 
and mark how multitudinous are the voices that reply, 
" The Lord he is the God." The murmuring of brooks, 
the lapping of sea-waves, the rolling of the thunder, the 
hum of the insects, the sweep of the tempest, the music 
of the spheres — all everywhere are saying, " The Lord is 
God." The heavens declare his glory, the firmament 
showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech 
and night unto night showeth knowledge of him. There 
is no speech nor language ; their voice is not heard ; yet 
their line is gone out through all the earth and their 
words to the end of the world. Their " line" is gone forth 
like an electric wire from the central throne of Deity, 
over which perpetually passes this message, " The Lord 
is God." 

A red republican in Paris during the Reign of Ter- 
ror was telling in a street-corner group how they were 
going to pull down the churches, to pull down the cruci- 
fixes and shrines and everything that could perpetuate 
religion, when a peasant standing by said quietly, " You 
must not forget, citizen, to pull down the stars." So long 
as there is a star in heaven, a tree in the forest, a brook 
rippling towards the rivers, or a river rolling to the sea, so 
long as a bird sings or a flower blooms, so long as there 
is one grass-blade left in the meadows, there will be an 
oracle through which a voice will proclaim, " The Lord 
he is the God." 

(2.) There is no if in providence. In history every- 
where there is a power that makes for righteousness. 
Time is a shuttle flying to and fro and casting the threads 
in and out, red and purple and golden — blood of battle- 
field, glory of the blessed times of peace ; and the theme 
of the pattern is the Triumph of Goodness. Who sits at 



"if" and "why?" 85 

the loom ? Looms do not weave without a weaver. " The 
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." 

"He works in all things; all obey 
His first propulsion from the night. 
Wake thou and watch. The world is gray 
With morning light." 

(3.) There is no if in grace. The story of redemption 
is eloquent of God. If for Carmel we read Calvary, we 
have the very consummation of the Lord's controversy. 
There w r as the great theistic argument. The sacrifice w r as 
laid upon the altar. It was not the voice of a solitary- 
prophet but of a ruined race that cried, " O God of our 
fathers, hear us, and let us know that thou art God!" 
Then the fire fell, the fire of divine justice, and consumed 
the sacrifice. As it is written, " He was made a whole 
burnt-offering for us." The angels of heaven who had 
leaned upon their harps and waited for the stupendous 
denouement must have shouted when it was finished, 
" Who is like unto our God, glorious in holiness, fearful 
in praises, doing wonders ?" Never on earth was seen 
such a demonstration of Jehovah's power. There is no if 
in grace. It is settled for ever that Jehovah is the God. 

What then ? Why do ye not follow him ? This is the 
answerless question. There are pretexts innumerable and 
subterfuges and makeshifts, but no man can present a valid 
excuse for withholding his love and service from the true 
God. All excuse will be put to shame in the judgment. 
" The hail shall sweep away the refuges of lies." 

It would be vain and superserviceable to canvass the 
frivolous subterfuges ; their name is legion. A few by- 
way of illustration must answer. 

There are those who plead honest doubt. But this is 
rarely sincere. An honest doubter is not contented until 
he has moved heaven and earth to resolve his doubt. It 



86 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

is related of Zaid, the sage of Mecca who had broken 
with the national religion, that he stood with his back to 
the temple crying, " If I knew thee I would worship thee ; 
but alas, I know thee not." Thus day after day he pros- 
trated himself and moistened the ground with his tears. 
So if honest doubt is really in our way, so important are 
the issues involved in these spiritual problems we must be 
upon our knees continually until we have settled it. We 
must be agonizing to rid ourselves of it. 

There are others who plead a want of feeling. This 
again is quite invalid ; nor would it be advanced in any 
other than the province of religious things. The question 
is not one of feeling but of fact. If a grocer were to pre- 
sent his bill to-morrow and you should answer, " I recog- 
nize the justice of this claim, but I have no feeling about 
it ; I somehow fail to apprehend it, and therefore I refuse 
to settle it," men would pronounce you akin to a fool. So 
I say the question of feeling does not affect the case. This 
lethargy, this listlessness, is greatly to be lamented ; but 
the thing to be attended to immediately is duty. Duty is 
a debt, a debt to God. If the Lord be God it is your 
duty to follow him ; and an honest man will pay his hon- 
est debts. 

Or possibly you desire time for deliberatioji. This 
also is a delusion and a snare. You have had time 
enough. If ten years were given you what would you do 
with them ? Would you settle the problem of the Trin- 
ity, of the Incarnation, of the divine decrees? Would 
you be any nearer to an acceptation of the fundamental 
truths of personal sin and a glorious Saviour? The plea 
for further time is practically no more nor less than sinful 
procrastination. What you need is not more reflection, 
but a moving of your stubborn will. And in the mean- 
time every moment of delay is a distinct violation of the 



"if" and "why?" 87 

divine law; for indecision is at this moment decision 
against God. 

Thus there is no if with reference to the Godhood of 
Jehovah, and there is no why as to our refusal to honor 
him. The most unreasonable thing in the world is the 
withholding of the soul's homage from the true God. The 
truth is, " The god of this world hath blinded the eyes of 
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gos- 
pel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto 
them. ,, 

It is not for me to say that this is the moment on 
which depends your eternal destiny. But it may be. The 
wise thing to do is to cut the Gordian knot. If you have 
been waiting, hesitating, procrastinating, there is at this 
moment before you a distinct possibility of beginning the 
service of Jehovah and so entering upon spiritual and 
eternal life. If you are persuaded that the God who has 
manifested his grace on Calvary in giving his only-begot- 
ten and well-beloved Son to die for us is the only living 
and true God, it behooves you as reasonable and right- 
minded men to set out forthwith to follow him. 

The most miserable man in all the multitude who shall 
turn away from the great assize to dwell in endless night 
will be that one against whom sentence is passed, " He 
knew his duty and did it not." Be wise therefore to-day. 



88 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

THE 

RIGHT OF A MAN BEFORE 
THE FACE OF GOD. 

" He will not turn aside the right of a man before the face of {he 
Most High." Lam. 3:35. 



The question of human rights has from the beginning 
held a prominent place in courts and councils and on bat- 
tlefields. The most notable events of history are such as 
mark the progress of this controversy. Runnymede was 
a milestone; the Reformation was another; Waterloo 
another. The nearest approach to a formal settlement of 
the question thus far was when our fathers issued the civil 
manifesto, " All men are created free and equal and with 
certain inalienable rights." 

These rights which the individual holds in relation to 
his fellow-men are intangible things, but they are infinitely 
worth striving for and defending. We think the more of 
St. Paul because he stood upon his rights at Philippi. 
The magistrates had commanded him to be beaten and 
cast into the inner prison. While he sat there in the 
night, his feet fast in the stocks, strange things happened, 
so that in the morning the magistrates were constrained 
to give orders for his release. But to their consternation 
the man refused to go. Paul insisted on his rights. He 
fell back on the Lex Porcia which forbade the scourging 
of a Roman. " They have beaten us openly and uncon- 
demned, and have cast us into prison, being Roman citi- 



THE RIGHT OF A MAN BEFORE GOD. 89 

zens, and now do they thrust us out privately ? Nay, but 
let them come and take us out." And so the magistrates 
did, and we respect Paul for the position which he took 
that day. 

It is not, however, to the rights of a man with respect 
to his fellow-men that we now direct our thought, but to 
his rights before the face of God. There is a general im- 
pression that God does as he pleases without any refer- 
ence to sanctions or immunities of ours. This, however, is 
far wide of the truth. God is never arbitrary. Shall not 
the Lord of all the earth do right ? In the long run, when 
we review his dealings with us from the standpoint of 
eternity, we shall see that his ways were just and righteous 
altogether. 

I. One of our rights with respect to God is life. This 
is a natural right. It is written that when God created 
man he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so that 
he became a living soul. In this particular man was cre- 
ated in the divine likeness. His life was like a spark thrown 
off from the infinite life of Deity. It is impossible, there- 
fore, to think of annihilation or of " conditional immortal- 
ity " in connection with him. 

The doctrine of immortality is not seriously questioned 
by thoughtful men. It is a striking coincidence that the 
two most dramatic soliloquies in English literature are 
both concerned with this truth. " To be or not to be " 
was not, after all, the real question that confronted the 
melancholy Dane. It was, rather, how to meet the end- 
less life. 

" To die, to sleep, 
Perchance to dream ! Ay, there 's the rub. 
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
Must give us pause." 



90 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

In like manner Cato, sitting in a meditative attitude 
with a disquisition on " Immortality" upon his knees and 
a drawn sword on the table before him, speaks thus : 

" The soul, secure in its existence, smiles 
At the drawn dagger and defies its point. 
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age and nature sink in years ; 
But thou shalt flourish in eternal youth 
Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." 

Our life is the only created thing in the universe that 
has not in it the seed and certainty of death. An oak 
may resist the storms of a thousand years, but it falls at 
last. Our bodies are never free from disease ; it is only a 
question of time when each shall return to the dust as it 
was. But the soul has in it no seeds of decay. Its eyes 
never grow dim, its blood does not stagnate, and when- 
ever the query is propounded, " If a man die, shall he live 
again?" its answer is instant, " I shall live and not die!" 

II. The second of our rights before God is freedom. 
This again is a natural right. It belongs to us by virtue 
of the fact that God created us in his own likeness. How 
he could have done this without giving us each a sover- 
eign will, is unthinkable. To be like God I must have a 
will and an unhindered right to exercise it. 

In this again man is unique among all created things. 
The sun goes forth out of its chambers in the morning to 
run its race, and has no alternative. God speaks and it 
obeys. The sea rolls to and fro as He directs. " Thus 
far shalt thou come and no farther ; and here let thy 
proud waves be stayed." But to you and me he says, 
" Thou shalt," and if I please I may make answer, " I 
will not." If he would win me he must reason with 
me. If he would capture me he must draw me with the 



THE RIGHT OF A MAN BEFORE GOD. gi 

cords of a man. The two great moral symbols of the 
Scriptures are the Decalogue and the Sermon on the 
Mount ; and each of these is set before us not merely 
with an ipse dixit, but on rational grounds. " I am the 
Lord, thy God, which have brought thee out of the land 
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Therefore thou 
shalt have no other gods before me." In like manner the 
Sermon on the Mount closes with a distinct concession 
that a man may disregard the divine injunction, though to 
his eternal and irremediable ruin. As it is written, " There- 
fore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth 
them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his 
house upon a rock : and the rain descended and the floods 
came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and 
it fell not ; for it was founded upon a rock. And every 
one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them 
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his 
house upon the sand ; and the rain descended and the 
floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, 
and it fell : and great was the fall of it." 

It thus appears that God has so ordered things as 
not to interfere with the exercise of our freedom. We 
drive our oxen with a whip, but we ourselves as rational 
beings are divinely led as with leading strings. " Come 
now, saith the Lord, let us reason together : though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 

If, notwithstanding his goodness, we persist in sin, he 
can only suffer us to have our way. " Ye will not come 
unto me that ye might have life." " O Jerusalem, Jeru- 
salem, how often would I have gathered thy children to- 
gether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, and ye would not !" 

III. We are entitled to the full benefit of the moral 



92 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

law. This also is a natural right. We are normal beings. 
As God himself is the source and centre of law, so we, 
being made in his likeness, are made under law ; and we 
may claim all the benefits and privileges of it. No inferior 
creature has a similar prerogative. The stocks and stones 
are not so. The vegetable and animal kingdom have no 
relation to moral distinctions. The fig-tree that was 
cursed by the Son of God and withered away was not 
wronged and could make no complaint against him, for it 
was wholly outside the province of the moral law. We, 
however, as God's children, have a distinct claim upon 
him. If it were conceivable that he should impose on us, 
we should have the right to protest against it. He could 
not, however, impose upon us. There are those who be- 
lieve in a more or less arbitrary decree of election and of 
reprobation. God is sovereign, but there is absolutely 
nothing unreasonable in the exercise of his sovereign will. 
When Nero pined for the sports of the amphitheatre, he 
might at any moment call for prisoners to be brought 
from their dungeons and select two victims, saying, " This 
one to the lions ; that one to the gladiator's sword." But 
there is no parallel between that and the divine election. 
We may not be advised as to the rationale of the eternal 
decree, but it would be impious and preposterous to sug- 
gest that there are not good and sufficient reasons be- 
hind it. 

There is, however, little comfort in claiming these 
privileges of the moral law. For what is law ? " The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." And what is justice? 
Eternal separation from God and goodness. We are sin- 
ners, all alike under the penalty of death. To stand upon 
our rights just here is to court despair. We may have 
law, we may have justice; but law and justice will land us 
in an unbroken and eternal night. 



THE RIGHT OF A MAN BEFORE GOD. 93 

In the story of the pilgrimage to the heavenly city 
Bunyan says, " As I journeyed I lighted on a certain 
place where I laid me down to sleep, and as I slept I 
dreamed. And behold, I saw a man clothed in rags stand- 
ing with his face turned from his own house, and a book 
in his hand and carrying a burden on his back ; and as I 
looked I saw him open the book and read. And as he 
read he wept and trembled ; and being no longer able to 
contain himself, he brake out into a lamentable cry, say- 
ing, 'What shall I do?'" 

IV. Fortunately for us we have another right, not nat- 
ural like the foregoing, but conferred, to wit, the right of 
appeal from law and justice to the mercy of God. No one 
among us can presume to stand upon his merits. On Sir 
Henry Lawrence's tomb at Lucknow is this inscription : 
" Here lies a man who tried to do his duty. May God 
have mercy on his soul !" If he tried to do his duty why 
did he not ask for justice ? Because, no matter how ear- 
nestly he had striven to live well, he had made a measura- 
ble failure of it. Mercy therefore was Sir Henry's only 
hope. He is a wise man who in like manner, after doing 
his best and being mindful of his shortcomings, casts 
himself with an utter abandon on the mercy of his God. 

It has been observed that this right of appeal is a con- 
ferred right. It is purely of grace. But once conferred 
it is inalienable. The franchise can never be taken away 
from us. The covenant of grace is yea and amen. " Him 
that cometh unto Me " — no matter how scarlet his sins — 
11 1 will in no wise cast out." 

Observe again, this right is the purchase of the Sa- 
viour's blood. But for his atoning work it could not, 
consistently with justice, have been conferred upon us. As 
it is written, " What the law could not do, in that it was 
weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the 



94 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the 
flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
in us." 

And once more, observe that this right is conditioned. 
It is conditioned upon the exercise of faith in Jesus Christ. 
A man may do as he pleases about exercising this faith, 
but in default of it he lives obviously under the law 
and must take the consequences. Not all are to be re- 
freshed by the water of life, but " whosoever will." A for- 
eigner coming to our country receives the elective fran- 
chise on condition of naturalization. In case he does not 
pass through the formalities necessary to receive it he may 
live next door to the polls, have a ballot-box in his house, 
be familiar with all the principles of our Constitution and 
regarded as a sage in political science ; but there is one 
thing which he cannot possibly do — he cannot vote. So 
you may be a pew-holder in the church, have a Bible on 
your table, be able to repeat the Catechism backwards 
and talk theology like a professor of polemics; but if you 
do not accept the gospel of Jesus Christ by an appropri- 
ating and obedient faith, you never can become a citizen 
of the commonwealth of God. Here is an answer to the 
query, " Why are not all saved by the atonement of the 
cross ?" 

" Though God be good and free be heaven, 

No force divine can love compel, 
And though the song of sins forgiven 

May sound through deepest hell, 
The sweet persuasion of His voice 

Respects thy sanctity of will. 
He giveth day ; thou hast thy choice 

To walk in darkness still. " 

Two closing thoughts. First. Salvation is within the 
reach of every man. You may be saved if you will. 



THE RIGHT OF A MAN BEFORE GOD. 95 

When God said, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye 
to the waters," he meant it. When he said, " Him that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out," he meant it. 
Second, You may be lost. It is easy to fall short of ever- 
lasting life. The grace of God is a slender thread let 
down from heaven. A man may easily push it aside and 
pass on. But in that case eternity will be full of regret. 
The most important thing an immortal soul ever does in 
this world is to exercise the power of choice with respect 
to the spiritual life. We must choose ; God cannot choose 
for us. Each for himself must mark out his own path 
through the eternal ages. God help us to set our faces 
heavenward ; and may he minister unto us at the last, for 
Jesus' sake, an abundant entrance into the kingdom of his 
grace 



96 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



PAUL AT ATHENS. 



" Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and said :- 
Acts 17:22. 



Milton characterized Athens as the "eye of Greece, 
mother of arts and eloquence." No man of ordinary- 
taste and culture could stand in the midst of its glories 
without a feeling of aesthetic enthusiasm. Yet Paul was 
moved only by an intense pity and indignation. Yonder 
was the Parthenon, beautified by the skill of Phidias and 
Praxiteles. Yonder the Areopagus, crowed with its co- 
lossal image of Mars ; here were the famous schools of 
philosophy by the Ilissus. On every hand were images 
of gods and heroes. Pliny says there were three thou- 
sand such effigies here. It was a proverb, " There are 
more gods than men in Athens." The apostle possibly 
walked down the Street of Hermes where a winged figure 
adorned the front of every home, or along the Avenue of 
Tripods, lined on every side with votive offerings given 
by grateful athletes to the gods who had helped them in 
the games. Gods everywhere : gods on pedestals, in 
niches, on the corners of the streets — gods and demigods, 
good, bad, and indifferent — a wilderness of gods ! And 
the heart of the apostle was moved within him " as he 
saw the city wholly given to idolatry." At length he 
mounted one of the rostrums in the public square and be- 
gan to speak. There was no difficulty in getting an 
audience, for Athens was a paradise of gossips and saun- 
terers. Its shibboleth was " What 's the news ?" So they 
gathered about him, men and women, priests and philos- 



PAUL AT ATHENS. 97 

ophers, all sorts and conditions of people. And he spoke 
to them of Jesus and the Resurrection, or as the Greeks 
had it, Jesus and Anastasia — a pair of new deities. He 
who introduced a god into Athens was counted a public 
benefactor. The interest of his audience was thus en- 
chained at once. Presently they said, " Let us go to the 
Areopagus for a better hearing." So to Areopagus they 
went, and the apostle preached a famous sermon there. 

THE PREACHER AND HIS PULPIT. 

I. Observe the man. Renan calls him " the little ugly 
Jew." He was stoop-shouldered, weak-eyed, and a stam- 
merer, but it did not take the Athenians long to discover 
that there was something in him, and the world, through 
all these centuries, has regarded him as one of its famous 
men. No profounder thinker or more skilful dialectician 
ever lived. He said of himself, " They tell me that my 
words are weighty, but my bodily presence is weak and 
my speech contemptible." The man's power lay in his 
conviction, and "thereby hangs a tale." In his youth, 
while attending the Rabbinical school, he gave promise 
of becoming a leader in his time. He was a pupil of 
Gamaliel, known as " the flower of the law." All that 
good blood and brilliant opportunities could do for him 
was done. In time he became a zealot among his people, 
was chosen to an honored place in the Sanhedrin, was 
distinctly in the line of promotion, and great things were 
expected of him. Then came the great sun-burst. On 
his way down to Damascus the Voice, which ever after 
he revered as his heavenly monitor, spoke to him, and 
life was never again the same. Thenceforth his will, heart, 
intellect, and conscience went out towards the things 
which he had previously hated. The love of Christ con- 
strained him. So thoroughly was his moral nature revo- 

The Gospel of Gladness. *1 



98 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

lutionized that for the name of Jesus Christ, whom he had 
previously reviled and persecuted, he cheerfully surren- 
dered all the bright hopes of his future, all high ambitions 
and aspirations — laid everything at the feet of his new- 
Master, saying, "I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me." 

II. Observe the pulpit. It was a fateful place. Many 
a man had here been devoted to death. On this stone 
platform Demosthenes had -stood and uttered forth 
" breathing thoughts in burning words." Here Socrates 
had made his apology and was doomed to drink the fatal 
hemlock. It was an historic platform. Facing it, on a 
shelf of rock, stood the Temple of the Furies, and over it 
towered the Temple of Mars. To this place Paul brought 
such a message as it had never heard before. He spoke 
as an ambassador from the court of heaven, bringing a 
message of peace to troubled souls. He stood on the 
" Rock of Impudence," where criminals were wont to de- 
fend their lives. It was not Paul, however, but his reli- 
gion, that was put on trial that day. And it has been on 
trial ever since. " The word of the Lord is tried." Chris- 
tianity has been through the fires of persecution ; it has 
withstood the assaults of criticism ; it has been tested all 
along the centuries in the histories of nations and men. 

We ourselves have put it to the test in the experience 
of our common life. And everywhere it has withstood 
the strain. The gods innumerable whom the apostle 
Paul confronted in Athens have all fallen to their faces on 
the earth, and " none so poor to do them reverence." 
Mars has not one worshipper, nor great Athene whose 
spear and shield glittered in the sun. The gods are 
gone, all gone. And the philosophies of Athens have 
gone with them. Zeno, Epicurus, Plato, are scarcely 
more than names. But the word of the Lord endureth for 
ever. 



PAUL AT ATHENS. 99 

III. Observe the audience. Here were priests, doubt- 
less, with the names of their deities worn as frontlets be- 
tween their eyes. Here were philosophers and students 
in their classic robes, representing all the various schools 
by the Ilissus. 

(1.) Stoics. These were Pantheists, who spoke of God 
as " the All," " the Universal Soul," and other terms 
familiar "to us in this day. They thought of man as an 
exhalation from the all-pervading Force or Soul of the 
Universe, whose destiny was to be absorbed presently, 
like a drop of water in the boundless sea. 

(2.) Epicureans. These were Materialists. They said, 
" Death ends all." And, inasmuch as life was circum- 
scribed by the narrow horizons of time and sense, what 
better could they do than make the most of the present 
hour ? Their aphorism was, " Let us eat, drink, and be 
merry, for to-morrow we die." 

(3.) Academicians. These were Agnostics : they 
dreamed many things, but knew nothing. All their sug- 
gestions were advanced with a " perhaps " or " it may be 
so." And, aside from these philosophers, there were 
doubtless others who were eager to know about eternal 
things, earnest, thoughtful, with a great longing to know 
the truth and to follow it. There were, moreover, the 
curiosity-mongers and hangers-on ; but all alike were im- 
mortal men and women, made in God's likeness and trav- 
elling on to his judgment-bar. Oh, Paul, preach thy best! 
If thou believest in the saving power of the gospel, then, 
in God's name, proclaim it without fear. Preach as a 
dying man to dying men, and God help thee ! 

THE SERMON AND ITS RESULT. 

IV. Observe the sermon. Its exordium was exceed- 
ingly felicitous. Taking for his theme the inscription 



IOO THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

upon an altar which he had observed in the market-place, 
" To the Unknown God," and mindful of the multitudi- 
nous shrines, statues, and other tokens of a religious spirit, 
the apostle began by saying, " Ye men of Athens, I per- 
ceive that in all things ye are exceedingly devout." It was 
a clever compliment at the outset and gained him their 
good-will. He announces his proposition thus : " God, 
the unseen, unknown God, him declare I unto you." He 
then proceeds to show how God, so far from being really 
unknown, has unveiled himself in many ways. We see 
him in creation : " He made the world and all things that 
are therein." We mark his providence : " In him we 
live and move and have our being." The preacher forti- 
fies himself at this point by a quotation from one of their 
own poets, Aratus, to wit, " We are also his offspring." 
We note his goodness also preeminently in his grace. He 
has made himself known in Jesus Christ, and in him has 
brought life and immortality to light. 

V. Observe the result. Paul's sermon was never fin- 
ished. The assembly on Mars' Hill was abruptly broken 
up. But no truth is ever spoken in vain. " For as the 
rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and return- 
eth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and 
bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth 
out of my mouth ; it shall not return unto me void, but it 
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper 
in the thing whereto I sent it." 

(i.) It is writen that " some mocked." It was easy 
for these philosophers to make sport of the stammering 
little Jew. It was quite in their line to point their finger 
at his grotesque doctrine of the crucified God. The res- 
urrection and the judgment were preposterous to them. 
The generation of mockers has not passed away. 



PAUL AT ATHENS. 101 

(2.) Others said, u We will hear thee again." But they 
never did hear him again. No doubt as they sauntered 
down from Areopagus, like modern congregations, they 
dissected the preacher. "That was a clever opening," 
said one, " wherein he complimented our piety." " Very 
true," said another, " and I like his fervor. How he 
warmed to his theme when he spoke of the judgment !" 
A third said, " He is a master of logic. Did you mark 
his double syllogism, * We are God's offspring, but we 
are living souls ; living souls cannot be born of dead mat- 
ter : ergo God is not a graven image ? Verily, the man 
is a dialectician." " Yes, and a master of literature as 
well. What could have been more appropriate than his 
quotation from Aratus ?" Thus they all agreed that Paul 
was a man of no common power and quite worthy of 
another audience. " We will hear him again," they said; 
but the time never came. Once and again, Paul sailed by 
the port of Athens, but that sermon was never resumed, 
and the men of Athens never looked into his face again. 
Oh why do people procrastinate ? Why do they wait 
the more convenient season, when the only convenient 
season is now ? Procrastination is in the nature of suicide. 
Men do not mean to die ; they simply put off beginning 
to live. 

" To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow 
Creeps in this petty space from day to day 
Till the last syllable of recorded time : 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death." 

There is a Russian legend of a man who intended to 
build a splendid home. The materials were brought and 
all things ready, but he put off from time to time the lay- 
ing of the corner-stone, until at length death saved him 
the trouble, as the legend puts it : 



102 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

"And thus in silent waiting stood 
The piles of stones and piles of wood, 
Till Death, who in his vast affairs 
Ne'er puts off things as men do theirs, 

" Winked at our hero as he passed. 

1 Your house is finished, sir, at last — 
A narrow house, a house of clay, 
Your mansion for an endless day.' " 

(3.) " Howbeit certain ones believed. " Among these 
were Dionysius, who is said to have been afterwards a bishop 
of Athens, and Damaris, a woman. They listened to Paul's 
announcement of life and immortality in Jesus Christ. 
They said, " This is true, and it is for me." We are wont 
to plead earnestly in behalf of our ministers that they may 
have the gift of tongues. Might it not be well to pray for 
a while that the people may have the gift of ears ? There 
are some creatures among the lower orders in nature 
whose auricular organs are so constructed that they can 
only hear the smaller sounds. They can detect the whis- 
per of zephyrs, the murmur of brooks, the hum of insects ; 
but the roar of the earthquake or the crash of heaven's 
artillery is nothing to them. In like manner there are 
some of us who attend only to the smaller sounds that are 
heard on the sensual levels of life, the call to wealth, to 
pleasure, to perishable honors, and cannot hear the voice 
of heaven inviting us to duty, to right living, to life and 
immortality. Oh for the hearing ear and the understand- 
ing heart ! 

God speaks to every one of us. He calls us to pardon 
of sin and to peace that passeth understanding. There is 
life in his word if we will heed it. But if we go our way, 
like the man who seeth his face in a glass and straightway 
forgetteth what manner of man he was, it were a thou- 
sand-fold better had we never heard it. 



AT THE DOOR. 103 

AT THE DOOR. 

A NEW- YEAR MEDITATION. 



"Why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou 
doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not 
well, sin lieth at the door." Gen. 4:6, 7. 

Here is the scene. Two altars ; on one of them a 
lamb consuming in sacrifice, blood streaming down the 
sides of the altar and smoke ascending towards heaven ; 
beside it a man kneeling with upturned face — a face glori- 
fied with the joy of pardon — and lips trembling with praise. 
On the other altar an oblation from the fields, a sheaf of 
barley, a basket of pomegranates, olives, clusters of grapes, 
a bloodless and unaccepted gift ; for " without the shed- 
ding of blood there is no remission of sin." By this altar 
a man standing with a lowering face, hand clenched, eyes 
flashing with the fires of an ungovernable rage. He is 
meditating a dreadful deed ; murder is in his heart. At 
the instant a Voice speaks to him out of heaven. Ah ! 
if only he would hear it ! " Why art thou wroth and 
why is thy countenance fallen ? If thou doest well, shalt 
thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth 
at the door." 

At the threshold of the year we look backward and 
recall many a sad experience. The shadow of the Death- 
Angel, mayhap, has fallen across our threshold; hopes 
have been crushed, ambitions thwarted. Our neighbor's 
farm has yielded him a hundred-fold while ours has 
brought forth naught but briers and thistles. Others' 



104 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ships have come back laden with treasure while ours 
have gone down far at sea. Shall we complain then? 
Shall we murmur at Providence ? 

" Father, whate'er of earthly bliss 

Thy sovereign will denies, 
Accepted at thy throne of grace 

Let this petition rise : 
Give me a calm, a thankful heart, 

From every murmur free, 
The blessings of thy grace impart 

And let me live to thee." 

But sorrows and disappointments are not the worst. 
We have sin and shame to remember. The things which 
we should have done we have left undone, and the evil 
that we would not we have done. If our poor efforts at 
devotion have been like sacrifices unconsumed shall we 
therefore be wroth with fate ? Nay, let us hearken : 
" Why is thy countenance fallen ? If thou doest well, 
shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, 
sin lieth at the door." The meaning here turns upon a 
single word. The Hebrew hattath is variously rendered 
sin, penalty, and sin-offering. The three meanings which 
are put upon it all have important lessons for us. 

I. Sin boweth at thy door. Here the figure is that of 
a slave doing an obsequious obeisance. The meaning is 
plain. The sins that served us in the old year are ready 
still to do our bidding. We may follow in the old paths 
if we will. Our evil habits, passions, and appetites, envy 
and avarice, evil-thinking and self-gratification, are fawn- 
ing retainers who now await our further nod and beck. 

We are free, if we please, to continue in our sins. Our 
freedom is an awful thing. As children of the infinite 
God we have sovereign wills. We speak of our " darling 
sins." We have loved them, we love them still. They 



AT THE DOOR. 105 

have misled us and deluded us and entrapped us and got- 
ten us into trouble a thousand times, and still we cherish 
them. Here again with the opening of the year they 
stand at our elbow, bowing and beckoning like the genii 
of the Eastern fairy tales, cringing and smiling and plead- 
ing to continue in our service. Shall they ? 

The chances are with them. Our natural bent is along 
the evil way; our hearts go out towards our besetting 
sins. It is with our frail nature as it was with ^Esop's 
garden. When his master inquired why the weeds and 
thistles grew faster than the more useful plants, the rude 
philosopher, leaning on his spade, answered, " I know not, 
sir, unless it be that the ground is mother to the weeds 
and only step-mother to the herbs. " So our nature is 
mother to evil but only step-mother to the good. Where 
fore we have need to reinforce its infirmity with the 
strength of God. To continue in the sins of the former 
time is to brave the danger of habituation. " His servants 
ye are to whom ye obey. ,, The sins that come pleading 
with obsequious proffers of devotion are hiding under 
their cloaks a writ of bondage and a covenant with hell. 
In the island of Innisfallen at Killarney are the ruins of 
the prehistoric Abbey of St. Finian. Through its founda- 
tions and about its walls an ivy as large as the trunk of 
an oak has forced its way. Time was when the vine lifted 
its modest head from the soil and said, " Let me twine 
upon thee, O strong abbey. I am but a frail thing ; let 
me cling to thee." And the abbey said, " Thou mayest, 
surely, if thou wilt shadow me from the hot suns and 
cover my infirmities with thy pleasant verdure." But as 
time passed and the vine thrust its fingers into nooks and 
crannies and displaced stones and mortar, the abbey said, 
"Thou art clinging too fast; loose thy hold! Thou art 
sapping my strength." But the ivy laughed, " Not I ! 



106 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

not I !" And stone was riven from stone until the struc- 
ture was in ruins. It is ever dangerous to retain an un- 
holy servitor. Sin grows upon us as time passes. The 
darling sin, kissed and caressed like an infant, soon 
reaches a colossal stature and ultimately commands us. 
It is a shop-worn saying of Pope's, 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen. 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. ,, 

It is in pursuance of the same thought that the apostle 
James sets forth the genealogy of death : A man is 
tempted, he says, when he is drawn away by his own de- 
sire and enticed ; " then when desire hath conceived it 
bringeth forth Sin, and Sin when it is finished bringeth 
forth Death." 

II. A second rendering of hattath is penalty : " If thou 
doest not well, Penalty is crouching at thy door!* The 
figure here is of a lean tiger awaiting its prey. 

The mere suggestion of penalty is repellent to us. 
We resent it. We cannot avoid the consciousness of sin, 
but we prefer to waive all consideration of hell. The 
word grates on ears polite. In these days the air is res- 
onant with love. Why should we hearken to the stri- 
dent suggestion of retribution or of justice ? But while we 
stand here on the borderland between the years it will be 
well for us to think for a moment of this lean tiger that 
crouches at our doors. 

We are made under the law of retribution. It is in 
the constitution of our nature. If there were no voice 
from heaven, if there were no Bible, if God had never in 
any wise revealed the truth, we must still believe that 
penalty follows sin. The law is written in our brain, in 
our heart, conscience, blood, and sinew, " The soul that 



AT THE DOOR. 107 

sinneth it shall die." Karma is a pagan doctrine, but it 
is a precise fac-simile of retributive justice. All the na- 
tions hold to a corresponding truth. The words of Long- 
fellow are an echo from the heathen oracles : 

"The mills of the gods grind slowly, 
But they grind exceeding small ; 
Though with patience they stand waiting, 
With exactness grind they all." 

Not long ago a murderer was tracked to his hiding-place 
by the blood-drops which fell here and there along his 
path. The officers followed the red trail, reached the 
threshold, climbed the stairway into the attic, and there in 
the dark cf the further corner they found him crouching 
and trembling. But there was nothing out of the ordi- 
nary in that. Sin always leaves a red trail behind it ; 
and the furies come more certainly than the night follows 
the day. 

The part which God takes in the administration of re- 
tributive justice is distinctly forensic. He puts his sanc- 
tion on a just sentence. When Cain fled from the scene 
of his brother's murder it was not God who laid punish- 
ment upon him, though it was to God he cried, " My pun- 
ishment is greater than I can bear !" It seemed to him 
that a dreadful unseen something walked beside him, fol- 
lowed after him, touched him. He looked around quickly: 
nothing was there. He aw r oke with a start in the night- 
time all in a clammy sweat; he thought the wraith of 
Abel was bending over him. It was indeed an intoler- 
able burden that oppressed him. Was God then his pur- 
suer ? Nay, as Milton says, 

" Himself was his own dungeon." 

God did but suffer justice to have its way. Even if it were 
possible to conceive of the universe and the present order 



108 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

as existing without God, the law of retribution would go 
right on. The doom of Belshazzar was passed upon him 
long before the Hand wrote upon his palace-wall, " Thou 
art weighed in the balance and found wanting." That 
phosphorescent sentence was but the divine imprimatur 
put upon the holy law. 

All this is commonplace — dreadful, but purely com- 
monplace. We know that the tiger crouches, yet we per- 
sist in sin. We go hurrying along the broad way despite 
the beacons kindled on the heights and voices of good 
angels calling us to pause, until we reach the chasm be- 
yond which lies eternal night. And out of that chasm 
comes a wail like the soughing of the November wind : 
Aion ton aidnon — " For ever and ever I" 

III. The third definition of hattath gives us this ren- 
dering : "A sin-offering lieth at thy door." And here is 
our most helpful lesson. If in the past we have sinned 
and come short of the glory of God, why should we weary 
ourselves in vain lamentation ? The lamb for an offering 
is at our door. We may at this instant be forgiven ; we 
may at this instant enter into the peace of reconciliation 
with God. The possibility of pardon is at hand. " Say 
not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven to bring 
Christ down, or who shall descend into the deep to bring 
up Christ again ? but rather, The word is nigh thee, even 
in thy mouth and in thy heart, to wit, If thou shalt con- 
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in 
thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou 
shalt be saved." 

If a man sinned in the olden time his first thought was 
of sacrifice. " Go," cried he, " bring a firstling of the 
flock, for I have sinned a great sin and must needs expiate 
it." The lamb was brought to the altar ; he saw it slain 
and placed upon the faggots ; he noted the fire kindling 



AT THE DOOR. log 

beneath it ; he saw the smoke of the oblation rising to- 
wards heaven ; and then he sang his thanksgiving. In 
that rising smoke his guilt seemed to be borne away from 
him. But all this was a meaningless pantomime, an 
empty dumb show, if it did not point onward to the great 
atonement which was to be accomplished in fulness of 
time. The blood streaming down the sides of this altar 
spoke of the fountain that was to be u filled with blood 
drawn from Immanuers veins." 

" Not all the blood of beasts 

On Jewish altars slain 
Can give the guilty conscience peace 

Or take away its stain ; 
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, 

Takes all our guilt away — 
A sacrifice of nobler name 

And richer blood than they." 

Let us come therefore to the high altar at Golgotha and 
hold converse with Him. 

" Who art thou ?" we ask. 

" I am the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world. Of me have the prophets spoken from the begin- 
ning. It is my blood alone that cleanseth from sin." 

" What doest thou here ?" 

" I am being wounded for thy transgressions and 
bruised for thine iniquities, that by my stripes thou may- 
est be healed. By reason of my Godhood there is in- 
finite virtue in the blood which I am pouring forth for 
thee." 

" What then must I do to be saved ?" 

" Believe, only believe. He that believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life. Come now let us reason together : 
though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as 



IIO THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool.'' 

Here is inexpressible comfort and encouragement at 
the opening of the year. A guilty queen walked in her 
sleep and remembered, and wrung her hands lamenting, 
" What 's done cannot be undone !" True ; what 's done, 
O friend, can never be undone ; but it can be forgiven. 
The sin-offering is at thy door. The penalty may be 
averted, as it is written, " There is therefore now no con- 
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Who shall 
lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that 
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that 
died ; yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the 
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." 
What's done can be forgiven; and, moreover, what's 
done can be forgotten. For he has promised, " I will re- 
member thy sins and iniquities no more." Lethe flows 
at the foot of Calvary. Therefore, putting our faith in 
the atoning virtue of the great Sacrifice, let us " forget the 
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, let us press towards the mark for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

In Bunyan's dream he saw a solitary traveller jour- 
neying with a burden on his back. Tears flowed along 
his cheeks and he groaned by reason of weariness. At 
length he came to a hill where there was a cross, and at 
the foot of the cross an open sepulchre ; and as he ran and 
drew near, lo the burden was loosed from his shoulder 
and it began to fall, and so continued until it rolled into 
the sepulchre, "and I saw it no more." Then was this 
traveller glad and grateful. He stood for a while wonder- 
ing and scarce believing. Then three shining ones ap- 
peared and saluted him, " Peace be unto you." One of 
them said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee ;" another gave 



AT THE DOOR. Ill 

him a change of raiment; and the third placed in his hand 
a parchment wherein was written his title to a heavenly- 
mansion. Then the traveller " gave three leaps for joy 
and went on singing." 

Thus have we come to Calvary at the opening of the 
year. Oh that here our burdens might be loosed and 
vanish from our sight ! Oh that we might hear the voices 
of the heavenly visitants saying, " Peace be unto you !" 
Thus leaving the past behind us, let us cheerfully press on 
towards the duties and responsibilities before us. 

I wish you all a happy New Year — a year of prosperity 
in all things, but most of all in the things pertaining to 
the kingdom of heaven. I wish you a year of spiritual 
growth, of faithful service, of close communion with the 
Master. I wish you a pleasant journey at his side, your 
hearts burning within you while he opens unto you the 
Scriptures and reasons with you along the way. And so 
continually, until, in company with all the the Lord's ran- 
somed, we shall come at length to Zion with songs and 
everlasting joy upon our heads. 



112 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



LOSING ONE'S LIFE. 



" For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will 
lose his life for my sake shall find it." Matt. 16:25. 

The key-note of the ministry of Jesus Christ is life. 
He came to give life and give it more abundantly. The 
word is used in a double sense. On the one hand it refers 
to that higher life which dwells in virtue and usefulness ; 
on the other, to the lower life of self-gratification which a 
man shares with his dog that frolics here and there until 
weary and then counts it the consummation of happiness 
to lie in the shadow and gnaw a bone. It is of this latter 
that the poet Montgomery wrote, 

" *T is not the whole of life to live 
Nor all of death to die." 

It is of the former that Bailey sang, 

" We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

Our Lord knew the higher life. He was familiar with 
heaven ; he had breathed the ozone of the celestial realms. 
He knew also the lower life. In his thirty years on earth 
he mingled constantly with men who were dead in tres- 
passes and sins. Dead people jostled him in the streets ; 
dead people saluted him on the thoroughfares — men and 
women whose only life was low and sensual. To breathe 
and eat and sleep and make merry — this was the sum and 
substance of it. 



LOSING ONES LIFE. 113 

The errand of Christ was to bring men and women up 
from the lower to the higher life. " I am come/' he said, 
" that ye might have life." " I am the Way, the Truth, 
and the Life." " I am the Bread of Life." " Except ye 
eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man ye 
have no life in you." " God so loved the world that he 
gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him might have everlasting life." " Ye will not come 
unto me that ye may have life." " And what shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own 
life ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life ?" 
" I am the Resurrection and the Life ; he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and he 
that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 

The law of the higher life is set forth in the passage 
before us. On four several occasions our Lord announced 
the principle, " He that saveth his life shall lose it." Once 
when he was commissioning the twelve (Matt. 10 : 29-39) ; 
again when Peter remonstrated with him against the 
necessity of his vicarious death (Mark 8 : 27-37) 1 an< ^ 
again when speaking of the approach of the calamity of 
Israel (Luke 17 : 26-33) \ an< 3 once more when the Greeks 
came to him as the vanguard of the Gentile world (John 
12 : 23-26). On each of these occasions our Lord enun- 
ciated with the utmost distinctness and solemnity this law 
by which we proceed from death to glorious immortality : 
" Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it ; and whoso- 
ever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it." 

I. What is it to save o?ie's life? Jesus lived in an 
age when the multitudes were doing it. The shibboleth 
was Dum vivimus, vivamus — " There is nothing better 
for a man than that he eat and drink and make merry !" 
This was the highest good, the sum total of life, and the 
people were making the most of it. 

Gospel of Gladness. 8 



114 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

I have stood on Mount Tom when the blue heavens 
seemed so vast and glorious that men and things below 
were scarcely in the reckoning. The farmers who were 
swinging their scythes in the fields seemed like pigmies. 
The horses trudging along the highways were no larger 
than ants. From an open carriage came sounds of laugh- 
ter — how far away it seemed ! How like Liliputians were 
they all ! So from his high outlook our Lord saw multi- 
tudes living within the narrow horizons of the senses, 
toiling for shining dust or chasing thistledown; souls, 
godlike and immortal, who 

" For ever hastening to the grave, 
Stooped downward as they ran." 

Some were striving for wealth — getting, hoarding, spend- 
ing — as sordidly and recklessly as if this life were all. 
Some were intent on pleasure, gratifying the senses with 
delights that perish with the using, crowning themselves 
with chaplets that would fade at nightfall. And some 
were pursuing honor, as multitudes are still pursuing it. 
The number of those who expect to occupy high places 
of authority is very small, but those who seek preferment 
or emolument of one sort or another — lovers of popular- 
ity, votaries of social position, solicitants of stars and gar- 
ters, aspirants after preeminence — these are legion. And 
the realization of their hopes is, in comparison with higher 
things, as the mote in the sunbeam or as the small dust of 
the balance. These are the pursuits that make up the 
lower life ; these are the things for which men and women 
agonize by day and dream uneasy dreams all night. 
There are people who go about our streets and alleys 
gathering rags and scraps of paper and bits of broken 
glass. This is their livelihood. " It 's a poor living," we 
say. Alas, those who live upon the lower levels are rag- 



LOSING ONE'S LIFE. 1 1 5 

pickers all ! And such as look down upon them from the 
heavenly heights and mark them mingle in low and base 
pursuits must in their hearts compassionate them. " A 
poor living indeed," they say, " a wretched life at its best !" 
Is it worthy of us, indeed, to amass the best this world can 
give us ? Are the flotsam and jetsam worth the saving? 

II. But what is it now to lose one's life — to lose it for 
noble ends? Jesus knew. He came from heaven to 
earth to cast away his life for the welfare of our ruined 
race. He surrendered all. for us; not otherwise was it 
possible for him to rescue us. He said distinctly, " The 
Son of Man must needs be delivered up and crucified " — 
must needs be. And with the purpose of making this 
necessity clear to his bewildered and remonstrating disci- 
ples he said, " Except a grain of corn fall into the ground 
and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die it bringeth forth 
much fruit." Here is the great principle of life proceed- 
ing out of death, of conquest born of self-sacrifice. The 
farmer who stints his seed-corn is a foolish man. He that 
soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. Scatter the wheat, 
O friend, whether in your own field or God's, if you care 
for a golden harvest and loaded wains and bursting bins. 
This is the word of the Master to all earnest men and 
women, " If any will come after me, let him deny himself 
and take up his cross and follow me." 

" Let him deny himself." Here is the first step towards 
the higher life. The Chinese tell of an old-time potter 
who vainly sought to put a certain tint upon his vases, 
until at last in desperation he cast himself into his furnace : 
then, when the kiln of pottery was taken out, lo the exquis- 
ite color was upon it ! It is a true parable. The fairest 
thing in our universe is character ; and character never 
puts on its utmost beauty until self is wholly surrendered 
to secure it. 



Il6 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

" And let him take up his cross T The cross is a sym- 
bol of altruism. Self-denial is negative ; altruism is posi- 
tive. We save others by sacrificing ourselves. This truth 
finds its preeminent illustration in the story of Golgotha. 
" If thou be the Christ," they cried, " save thyself; come 
down from the cross!" But he could not. " He saved 
others," they tauntingly shouted ; " himself he cannot 
save !" Alas, it was true ! A moral necessity was upon 
him. If he would save the ruined race, himself he could 
not save. And the same constraint is upon us. The cross 
has vast significance. It means distinctively the taking up 
of a painful service in behalf of our fellow-men. We serve 
others and rescue the perishing just as we enter into fel- 
lowship with our Saviour's death ; and so doing we pass 
out of the lower life into the higher, out of the sordid world 
of self-gratification into the kingdom of God. It is thus 
that we become partakers of the divine nature. Thus the 
apostle said, " I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I 
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 

" And let him follow me." To follow Jesus is to step 
in bloody footprints that lead ofttimes to the haunts of sin 
and shame, mayhap to Golgotha, but always at last into 
the spiritual and eternal life. The prayer of our Master 
was, "Father, glorify thyself !" His life was devoted to 
the glorification of God. To follow Christ is to give God 
the uppermost place. He must dominate all our powers 
and rule in all our tasks and pleasures ; as the sky over- 
arches the earth, so must the thought of the Infinite One 
canopy the soul of him who follows after the only-begot- 
ten Son of God. 

To live thus is to be worthy of our manhood. We 
were created in the image and after the likeness of God. 
The consummation of all worthy purpose is to return to 
him. To leave this out of the reckoning is to be unwor- 



LOSING ONE'S LIFE. 117 

thy of our birthright. When Themistocles was asked 
by one of his soldiers why he gathered none of the gold- 
en chains and other spoil which the enemy had thrown 
away in their flight, he answered, " Thou mayest, for thou 
art not Themistocles." A man has made a great stride 
towards the noblest possibilities of his nature when he has 
rightly conceived the thought of his divine birth and has 
heard God's voice calling him. 

III. What is it to find one's life for ever, or, as else- 
where, to preserve it unto life eternal ? What is that ? I 
wish I knew. I wish I could elucidate it. How easy to 
say "life eternal," but how impossible to grasp even a 
modicum of the meaning of it ! 

We begin this higher life here and now. We do not 
wait for a heavenly summons in order to enter the king- 
dom of God. The sense of pardon, a good conscience, 
the fellowship of the Spirit, the hope of glory — these make 
the beginnings of heaven on earth. 

" Celestial fruits on earthly ground 
From faith and love do grow." 

" The life is more than meat," said the Master, " and the 
body is more than raiment. Why therefore should ye be 
anxious as to what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or 
wherewithal ye shall be clothed ? Seek ye first the king- 
dom of God and his righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you." To get above the fret and 
worry, the sordid cares of those who have no life beyond 
that of the madding crowd, to have God's peace abiding 
in one's heart — this is to dwell in the higher life, this is to 
be, here and now, in the kingdom of God. 

But hereafter — what must it be hereafter? The life 
everlasting ! To have our names written in the book of 
Life, to receive a crown of Life, to drink from the river of 



Il8 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

Life, to eat of the tree of Life which is in the midst of the 
paradise of God — it is not possible for us to understand 
the delectable things which are concealed in these meta- 
phors. The pilgrim in the allegory who had escaped 
from the City of Destruction and saw heaven in the dis- 
tance, ran with all his might, despite the voices of his 
friends and kinsmen, and as he ran he thrust his fingers in 
his ears and cried, " Life ! Life ! Eternal Life !" 

The picture of " The Temptation of Jesus in the Wil- 
derness/' by Ary Scheffer, is criticised by many on the 
ground that, like Milton in " Paradise Lost/' he has made 
Satan the more imposing figure. This however is so only 
to the superficial view. Christ, as you will remember, 
stands on a barren spur of the mountain. Just below him 
is the tempter, a commanding presence, strong in every 
nerve and sinew. He has just directed the thought of 
Jesus to the kingdoms of this world and offered them all 
for a single act of homage. He seems to say, " I know 
thy purpose. Thou hast come to conquer the world by 
dying for it. But why shouldst thou endure the anguish 
of the cross ? I am the Prince of this world and am pre- 
pared to abdicate my power on one condition. All these 
kingdoms shall be thine if thou wilt fall down and worship 
me !" Above him stands the calm figure of Jesus, his face 
marked by the assurance of divine power and authority. 
With a simple wave of his hand he dismisses the alluring 
thought. At such a price the kingdoms of this world 
cannot tempt him ; he puts them all away. He waves 
the world aside and wins it ! Thus may we attain to the 
highest by putting the lowest from us. Thus may we 
attain unto life by bidding our lower natures die the death. 
Thus may we spurn the world to enter the kingdom of 
God. 

Here is the great problem after all, the problem that 



LOSING ONE'S LIFE. 119 

confronts every earnest soul, " What shall it profit a man 
if he gain the whole world and lose his life ? Or what 
shall a man give in exchange for his life ?" He that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath life. And he that liveth and 
believeth in him — oh blessed, blessed immortality ! — shall 
never die. 



120 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

THE 

BRAZEN SERPENT. 



" And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must 
the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3: 14, 15. 

One night in Easter week a man sat in an upper 
chamber in the city of Jerusalem. It was late and he was 
alone. The lamp on his wall burned dimly. He was 
plainly clad and his hands were calloused with toil. It 
was plain to be seen that he was a man of the people. An 
open scroll lay before him, but he was not reading- it. 
There was a far-away look in his eyes. He was commun- 
ing with heaven, hearing distant voices — the hallelujahs 
of the kingdom. There was a step on the outer stairway, 
and a moment later a visitor entered. He wore a garment 
falling to his feet, a broad phylactery on his forearm, and 
a frontlet between his eyes whereon was written, " Hear, 
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord !" He was an 
old Sanhedrist, one of the inner circle of Jewish wise men. 
What was he doing here ? He closed the door quickly, 
glanced backward to assure himself that he was not fol- 
lowed, advanced, and made the customary salutation. 
The other arose, and bowing low, answered, " Peace be 
unto you." 

It was a notable meeting. And in the interview that 
followed there were wonders upon wonders. Our first 
surprise is at the very threshold. For it is passing strange 
that Nicodemus should have been received at all. There- 



THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 121 

by we know that our Lord is willing to welcome the hum- 
blest and worst of us. This man was a moral coward, else 
he would not have come to Jesus under cover of the night. 
He feared the pointed finger, dreaded to have it known 
that he had visited the Nazarene teacher. Thrice only in 
the Scriptures is Nicodemus named, and always with this 
qualification, " The same came to Jesus by night." We 
may meet him some time in the kingdom : but if we do, 
the angel who introduces us will be likely to say, " This is 
Rabbi Nicodemus, the same who came to Jesus by night." 
Despite his cowardice, however, the Lord graciously re- 
ceived him. His motive was of the lowest ; he was prob- 
ably scourged thither by an uneasy conscience, by his fear 
of the torments which follow sin. All this was sufficiently 
selfish, yet the Lord did not reject him. Wherefore we 
conclude that there is a welcome for all, even unto the 
uttermost. The promise is, " Him that cometh unto me 
I will in no wise cast out." Let no one hesitate to fling 
himself upon the heart of this Jesus ; his hands beckon, 
his mercy is for all. 

Not only was Nicodemus admitted to an audience that 
night, but to him were revealed some of the deepest and 
sublimest of truths. One of these was Rege?ieration. On 
entering he saluted the Nazarene prophet with a graceful 
compliment, " Master, we know that thou art a teacher 
come from God;" but under this formal greeting, deep 
down in his heart was a throbbing desire to know the way 
of everlasting life. Skilled in the art of forensic dissimu- 
lation, he gave no outward token of this longing ; but the 
Lord saw it. At a glance he saw the case of Nicodemus 
through and through. And giving no heed to his cour- 
tesy, he proceeded straightway to the matter in hand : " I 
know the purpose of thy heart ; I know thine aspiration 
after a nobler and a better life. Verily, verily I say unto 



122 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

thee, except a man be born again he shall not see the 
kingdom of God." The Rabbi was bewildered. He was 
familiar with the learning of the rabbinical schools and the 
speculations of philosophy, but this being born again was 
all mystery to him. Thus to-day there are multitudes of 
learned men, professional men of broad culture and liberal 
education, who can scan their Virgils and quote from 
Aristotle, but know next to nothing about spiritual things. 
They are blind as bats with reference to those great prob- 
lems which reach out unto the eternal world. Thus it is 
written, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned." 
There was hope for Nicodemus, however, inasmuch as he 
frankly confessed his ignorance. " How can these things 
be?" he exclaimed. The Lord must teach him as if he 
were a lad in a kindergarten. It was a gusty night ; the 
wind whistling through the narrow streets furnishes the 
object-lesson. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
cometh or whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born 
of the Spirit." The blowing of the wind is an undeniable 
fact despite the mystery attendant upon it ; so also is the 
" 'gain-birth." We mark its tokens in the transformation 
of character as distinctly as we hear and feel the blowing 
of the wind. We may not understand, but as frank and 
sensible people we must needs acknowledge it. 

The other truth revealed to Nicodemus in this inter- 
view was that of Redemption. The Lord having pierced 
this Rabbi's soul with the sharp dogma of regeneration, 
now brings the balm of redemption to mollify his wound : 
" For God so loved the world that he gave his only-be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." Yet here again Nicode- 
mus was amazed. All this was so contrary to his accus- 



THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 1 23 

tomed way of thinking, so opposed to rabbinical notions 
and the tradition of the elders. He had been wont to rea- 
son along the lines of retribution; sowing and reaping 
made up his philosophy of justice : " The soul that sinneth 
it shall die." It was not strange that he stumbled now at 
the thought of the sinner's going scot free, at the innocent 
suffering for the guilty, at the saving virtue of faith. The 
Lord again found his object-lesson at hand. " Do you 
remember," said he, " how Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness?" It was an old story; the Hebrew peo- 
ple were all familiar with it. 

The thing happened towards the close of the wilder- 
ness journey. For thirty-eight years and more the chil- 
dren of Israel had been going round about on their w r ay 
to the Promised Land. It was a short journey in fact, 
and a few months should have accomplished it. But sins 
are clogs and fetters to a pilgrim in the heavenward way. 
God must needs discipline these people and rid them of 
their infirmities before they can enter in and possess the 
goodly land. So round and round they went, " compass- 
ing Edom," over the scorching sands and under the bla- 
zing suns. They were not able to enter in because of their 
unbelief. Their murmurings and idolatries kept them out. 
Now here they were again upon the border. They could 
climb the mountain and look over upon their inheritance. 
Behind them were the broad, barren stretches of the wil- 
derness; before them, sweet fields all dressed in living 
green and rivers of delight. " To-morrow," they said, 
" we will cross the river." But that night King Arad with 
his barbaric hordes came out against them. They called 
upon God in their extremity and he made bare his arm 
in their behalf. Then burying their dead they set forth. 
But the roads were steep and rugged, and " they were 
discouraged because of the wav." Their women and 



124 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

children were worn out, and wearily trudging along the 
difficult paths they fell again into their besetting sin and 
began to murmur, " Why have ye brought us up hither ?" 
They loathed their blessings and reproached God. What 
could be done with this stiff-necked people? This was 
their twelfth murmuring ; it must be punished. The fiery 
serpents came, crawling from the coppices, hissing along 
the paths, stinging with their venomous fangs. Cries of 
anguish were heard everywhere. Multitudes were sick 
unto death. Then Moses in answer to his intercessory 
supplication was bidden to raise the brazen effigy upon a 
pole in the midst of the encampment ; and the proclama- 
tion was issued, " Look and live." 

Do you believe the story ? Our Lord evidently be- 
lieved it and wished Nicodemus to believe it. But then 
it must be remembered that He was not as familiar with 
the facts of Scripture as some of our modern wise men. 
We have been recently told that we must not be surprised 
to find limitations put upon the knowledge of Christ. 
This is going a step farther than to deny the inerrancy of 
the Scriptures. But whatever our learned critics may 
think, it is plain that Jesus accepted the truth of the old 
narrative, and the Church universal, despite the caveat of 
irreverent criticism, yields a cordial assent to it. " These 
things," says Paul, " happened unto our fathers for types." 
(i Cor. 10: ii, margin.) There must, therefore, be help- 
ful suggestions here for us. 

I. Our first lesson is about sin. Sin is virus. The 
tempter is " that old serpent." In his first approach to the 
human race he came in serpentine form. And his influ- 
ence was deadly as a serpent's fang. Sin courses through 
our blood like venom — from heart to brain, to feet, to fin- 
ger-tips. The sinner is poisoned through and through. 
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. Isa. 1 : 5. 



THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 1 25 

There is no cure in our materia medica for the ser- 
pent's bite. In vain did the Israelites search for an anti- 
dote. Their herbs and nostrums and incantations were in 
vain. The world has been groping through the ages for 
some remedy for sin. Mythology and philosophy are but 
tokens of the vain quest. Here is the problem : What 
shall I do to be saved ? How shall God be just and yet 
the justifier of the ungodly ? Or how shall a man be just 
with God ? 

Sin is mortal. The deadliest thing in the world is a 
cobra's bite. The eye of the victim grows dull and glassy, 
his flesh cold and blue to his fingers ; in an hour his body 
is laid out for its burial. We cannot separate sin from its 
penalty. Sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. 

II. Our second lesson is of the Saviour. Here is a 
striking similitude. 

(1.) The brazen effigy for the healing of the Israelites 
was in the likeness of their malady. A tablet might have 
been raised upon the pole with the name "Adonai " upon 
it. Would not that have answered just as well ? No, it 
must be a brazen serpent, for it is intended to prefigure 
that Christ who must assume the form of sinful flesh in 
order to deliver the world from sin. As it is written, " He 
who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be- 
come the righteousness of God in him." And again, " He 
hath redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for 
us ; as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on 
a tree." And again, " What the law could not do in that 
it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son 
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in 
the flesh ; that the righteousness of the law might be ful- 
filled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit." 

(2.) But while this effigy was made in the similitude of 



126 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

a serpent, there was no venom in it. Of all the vipers that 
crept and hissed throughout the camp, there was not one 
that did not have poison under its tongue. This serpent 
alone was harmless. In like manner Christ, who assumed 
a sinful form and came for our deliverance, was " holy, 
harmless, and undefiled," the only sinless man on earth. 
" There was no guile in his lips." Who shall lay anything 
to his charge ? "I find no fault in him at all." 

(3.) But that harmless effigy had power, like a mad- 
stone, to draw the virus from every wound. Our Lord 
upon his cross has a like power to save. Our sin is laid 
by imputation upon him, that he in turn may cast about 
us, by the imputation of his righteousness, a garment of 
fine linen, clean and white. He is the sinless One; and yet, 
hanging yonder as our substitute before the offended law, 
he becomes in our behalf the very chief of sinners. The 
world's burden is laid upon him. He assumes the curse 
of the race. The blood upon his brow seems like a front- 
let bearing this word, "Accursed I" The priests and Phar- 
isees passing by wagged their heads and cried, " Cursed 
is every one that hangeth on a tree !" The earth, rum- 
bling in the deep darkness, utters forth his doom, "Ac- 
cursed !" His own anguished cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sa- 
bachthani /" betrays his conviction that the curse of the 
perishing multitude is rolled upon him. It is by virtue of 
this imputation that he, being made in the likeness of sin, 
can draw the venom from the world's mortal wound. " He 
bare our sins — bare them and bare them away — in his own 
body on the tree." 

III. The Great Salvation. " I, if I be lifted up, will 
draw all men unto me." 

This " lifting up " meant death. So the Jews always 
understood it. Only by the death of Jesus could he give 
us entrance into life. His blood clcanseth. In an assem- 



THE BRAZEN SERPENT. \2J 

bly of so-called " Liberal Christians " the question arose, 
11 Why is it that all the evangelical bodies of believers are 
making rapid and manifest progress while we alone go 
backwards ?" Various answers were given. At length 
one of the delegates was moved to say, " Brethren, we 
^must not expect to receive great accessions from among 
the people so long as we reject the doctrine of the blood. 
We have no blood in our religion. " A most notable and 
significant confession. No blood in their religion ! God 
help them then, and God pity their followers ; for without 
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. 

It is because our Lord was thus " lifted up " on his 
cross, tasting death for every man, that salvation can be 
offered to all. Christ's life, death, and resurrection are 
for all. He is the light that lighteth every man that Com- 
eth into the world. By his atoning work every sinner is 
brought within the charmed circle of a possible salvation. 
Not that all are saved. Would to God they were ! But 
all are made salvable. The responsibility of life or death is 
thrown upon them. There is none that cannot be saved. 
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters !" 
"The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that 
heareth say, Come ; and let him that is athirst come ; and 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 

The sole condition affixed to eternal life is belief in 
Christ. " He that believeth shall be saved." Only be- 
lieve ! Look and live ! No doubt there were many in 
Israel who, notwithstanding the proffer of life, perished 
and were buried in the desert sand. There were some 
who put their dependence upon such human help as was 
at their command; and they died. There were some who 
said, " We are likely to recover in any case ; there is no 
need of alarm ;" and they died. There were some who 
could not understand how there was healing power in a 



128 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

brazen serpent on a pole : " It is mere superstition, and we 
decline to have anything to do with it;" and they died. 
There were some who had passed the stage of anguish 
and were in torpor when bidden to look ; they were com- 
fortable and did not wish to be disturbed ; and they died. 
But others, multitudes of others, hearing the invitation, 
looked towards the brazen effigy and lived. There are 
hundreds on hundreds of excuses that may be offered by 
the unbeliever for refusing to believe in Christ; but they 
all mean rejection ; and his is the only name given under 
heaven whereby we must be saved. " He that believeth in 
the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved ; he that believeth not 
shall be damned. " He shall die in his sins as certainly as 
the serpent-bitten in the wilderness who would not look 
and live. 

Faith is a simple thing, but it is " the coupling of des- 
tiny ;" it links the soul with the mercy of God. There is 
a legend of Bishop Forannau that, fleeing from his ene- 
mies, he with twelve companions came to the seashore. 
There, being at their wits' end, they found two .flotsam 
logs. These they pushed out upon the waves and cast 
themselves upon them. The logs formed themselves into 
the shape of a cross and were borne away by favorable 
winds to the Flemish shore. Thus Forannau and his 
twelve were saved. The fable teaches that no man ever 
yet trusted himself to the cross and was not saved. No 
man ever looked to Jesus and died in his sins. 

" Look ! look ! look and live ! 
There is life for a look at the Crucified One, 
There is life at this moment for thee." 



MAKING HASTE. 1 29 



MAKING HASTE. 



" He that believeth shall not make haste." Isa. 28: 16. 

This " making haste " is one of our generic sins. We 
are all in a hurry. A wise man among the ancients, on 
being asked what panacea he would suggest for the evils 
of human life, gave this answer: " Patience ; all things 
come right to those who wait." Among the attributes of 
a symmetrical character, as given by the apostle Peter, 
to wit, " Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, 
godliness, brotherly-kindness, and charity," we are accus- 
tomed to think of patience as the least attractive and most 
commonplace of all. She is the scullery maid in the sis- 
terhood of graces. But in the final outcome this Cinder- 
ella will be at the palace, clothed in royal apparel and 
wedded to the king's son. 

The reason why we lack patience is because we have 
so little faith. We believe in God as a far-off entity; but 
how faintly do we grasp our intimate and cordial relations 
with him ! We believe in ourselves in a manner, but not 
half in ourselves as divinely born and destined to a heav- 
enly inheritance. We believe in such wealth as the sordid 
multitudes are striving for, but how little in the inestima- 
ble riches of the grace of God. We believe in getting 
the most of pleasure out of these passing hours ; but if we 
could realize what those pleasures are which "are at the 
right hand of God for evermore," what manner of persons 
we would be ! We live in a narrow, sensuous circle, 
bounded by the reach of our finger-tips. Oh for a larger 

The finspol of Gladness. Q 



130 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

faith in God, in the possibilities of this life, and in those 
eternal verities which reach out unto future ages! He 
that believeth in these shall cease all worry and fretful- 
ness and rest content in God. " My soul, wait thou only 
upon God, for my expectation is from him." 

I. At the outset we are over eager to meet the tasks 
and responsibilities of earnest life. Our sons and daugh- 
ters can scarcely wait to be through their schooling. One 
of the most painful disappointments that ever came to me 
was when I first met Dr. Taylor on old Andover Hill. I 
had gone there to Phillips Academy for a little final pol- 
ishing in preparation for college. He looked my scant 
accomplishments over and said, " My boy, you need two 
years of earnest study." Then seeing how my counte- 
nance fell, he added, " There's no hurry. Don't fret; 
the world will wait for you." It was a true saying. The 
world waits for everybody who is earnestly preparing to 
take part in its important affairs. But our boys and girls 
can with difficulty be made to believe it. The outlook 
seems interminable ; four years at college and three more 
of professional study ! But it pays to get ready and to 
get ready well. The issues involved are so momentous 
that none should presume to meet them until he has 
bound his girdle about his loins. 

Our Lord himself was an apprentice in a carpenter 
shop. He made ploughs and harrows and mended the 
furniture of the village folk. He knew that the world 
was dying for want of his redemptive offices. He heard 
the foot-fall of the innumerable multitude as they passed 
by heedless of duty and unmindful of the great spiritual 
truths : he knew they were going, lock-step, down to 
eternal death. A soul was passing into eternity every 
second and he was aware of it; yet he went on mending 
ploughs and harrows, and taking an interest in the com- 



MAKING HASTE. I3I 

monplace affairs of his townsmen. Thus he grew in 
stature and wisdom. He learned his lessons line by line 
and precept by precept at the rabbinical school, and in 
fulness of time he entered on his work well prepared 
for it. 

II. In our secular pursuits we are all too much given to 
worry and precipitation. This is preeminently an Amer- 
ican sin. A young man sets out in the practice of law. 
He waits for clients, but no clients come. He cannot 
bide his time. He casts his eye upon the political arena 
and sees men struggling there for the mastery. He strips 
to the waist and enters for the prize. He wins it : a local 
office, then promotion, and at length a seat in our na- 
tional councils. Is this success ? One thing is certain : he 
has failed as an attorney-at-law ; whether he has succeeded 
otherwise remains to be seen. There is a last chapter in 
every life. The saddest sight along the sea is the hulk of 
an old vessel, water-logged, abandoned, and useless. The 
corresponding sight in common life is a political hulk, 
high and dry upon the shore, friendless and of no appa- 
rent use. 

A young man enters commercial life to find that weigh- 
ing sugar and measuring cambric by the yard are slow 
work. Is there not a shorter road to wealth ? Ay. Pres- 
ently he puts his little capital into speculation or into loans 
at exorbitant interest. He may thus accelerate his pur- 
pose, but is this success ? At the time of the Chicago fire 
I knew men who lost the accumulations of a lifetime by 
opening their vaults too soon. Had they waited they 
might have saved all their bonds and mortgages; but 
turning the key in the white-hot locks, there was a puff of 
flame, a heap of ashes, and everything was gone. How 
many a man has been ruined by such over-eagerness. 
The best livelihood and most satisfying in the long run is 



132 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

that gotten by what Robert Burns has called " gin-house 
prudence and grubbing industry*" All things come right 
to those who wait. 

III. So also with respect to spiritual things. It is not 
well even to come to Christ precipitately. He himself 
said to a multitude who were following him, " If any man 
will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, 
and follow me." Pointing to an unfinished tower by the 
roadside, he bade the people mark it well as indicating 
the folly of undertaking a very important work without 
pausing to count the cost. " This man," he said, " began 
to build and was not able to finish." The Christian life 
involves all our most momentous interests here and here- 
after. It is not to be entered upon thoughtlessly, there- 
fore, nor in haste, but wisely and with deliberation. 

Let it be understood, however, that deliberation is one 
thing and delay another. A man may do a thing with 
the utmost thoughtfulness and yet do it instantly and in 
the nick of time. The blacksmith when he draws the red 
iron from the forge, lifts his hammer with the utmost de- 
liberation, measuring the necessary force and the distance 
to be traversed by the blow, doing nothing in haste and 
yet striking instantly ; for he must needs strike while the 
iron is hot. We deceive ourselves oftentimes, when facing 
great spiritual responsibilities, in thinking that we are 
waiting for more light or for deeper convictions, when in 
fact we are merely putting off the duty which presses 
vitally upon us. With respect to our surrender to the 
demands of Christ, we have all weighed the question well, 
and over and over and over again. It has been before us 
ever since we learned of Jesus at our mother's knees. No 
new facts enter into the problem. No new developments 
with respect to the solution of the question are to be 
looked for. The only thing that remains is to do what 



MAKING HASTE. 1 33 

we know to be manly and right and to do that instantly. 
The man who acts on impulse is sure to blunder serious- 
ly, but the man who lets his opportunity go by default, 
doing despite his heart and conscience day after day and 
year by year, is guilty of one continuous and disastrous 
blunder. It was a frontier philosopher who said, " Be 
sure you 're right, then go ahead :" but neither Paul nor 
Plato could have marked out a wiser rule of life. 

IV. Still further, with respect to spiritual growth. We 
are ofttimes disheartened because we seem only to creep, 
whereas we would " run up the heavenly way." We for- 
get that character is slow growth — first the blade, then 
the ear, then the full corn in the ear. There must be time 
in grace, as in nature, for God's rain and sunshine. The 
sturdy oak that defies the storm and whirlwind is the pro- 
duct of a hundred years. The fungus under its shadow 
springs up in a single night, but a rude breath kills it. 
True Christian character, the stalwart stuff that martyrs 
and confessors are made of, is a gradual development. 
Mere pious sentiment, the stuff that Pharisaism is made 
of — the stock in trade of the unco-guid — cometh up as a 
flower. How we envy the dear saintly grandmother who 
sits in the chimney-corner with her Bible before her, God's 
peace that passeth all understanding filling her heart, 
and her dim eyes full of visions of the heavenly life ! She 
seems to have quite subdued all sin and passion and to 
have entered into the inner place of the Lord's pavilion. 
No bondage of sin, no warring of spirit and flesh, no 
doubts or misgivings ; she simply rests in God. How 
came she to this large measure of sanctification ? By the 
very path that we are treading now, by years of patient 
continuance in well-doing. Take heart, O young disci- 
ple of Christ ! The pilgrim's progress to the land of Beu- 
lah is the journey of a life. All the invention of these 



134 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

bustling times has devised no plan of expediting our pil- 
grimage to heaven. 

" We go the way the prophets went, 
The way that leads from banishment, 
The King's highway of holiness." 

An Alpine tourist set out at early morning to climb 
the Matterhorn. The air was bracing and he pressed on 
with springing steps. Presently he passed a peasant 
going on with steady strides, and to himself he said, 
" Slow fellows, these, hereabouts ;" and on he hastened. 
But the path was steep and rugged. Ere noon his steps 
lagged and he reclined to rest under an overhanging crag. 
Then along came the peasant with that steady, swinging 
gait and passed on before him. It is but another version 
of the Hare and the Tortoise, a lesson which holds true 
in spiritual as in secular life. It pays to be patient. It 
pays to plod. Faith is our alpenstock, beloved ; let us 
lean hard upon it. 

The man who thoroughly believes in God can afford 
to be patient. He knows that all things are working to- 
gether for his good. He is assured of good times coming. 
He can bear up under trouble, not because his nerves are 
unsensitive, but because he is confident that his afflictions 
are but for a moment, and that they are destined to work 
for him a far more and exceeding weight of glory. He 
never surrenders to fate. He bears up bravely and waits. 
There was true philosophy in the words of the little maid 
who being asked to define patience, said, " It means, 
Bide a wee and dinna weary." Time rights all things. 
The years roll on for ever, and almost before we are aware 
we shall awake in the resurrection morning. A little 
while ! What is this that he saith ? " Why art thou 
cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted with- 



MAKING HASTE. 1 35 

in me ? Hope thou in God ; for I shall yet praise him, 
who is the health of my countenance and my God." 

V. We note a similar restlessness in Christian service. 
We are all too eager to accomplish the great thing. We 
forget that spiritual success is best achieved by always 
doing the next thing. The apostles, if left to themselves 
after our Lord's ascension, might have proceeded at once 
to the conquest of the world ; and had they done so dis- 
mal failure would have awaited them. But they remem- 
bered his word, " Tarry ye at Jerusalem until ye be endued 
with power." They waited, not restlessly or indolently, 
but upon their knees, and the enduement came ; then they 
went forth to accomplish great things for God. Let us 
look to our preparation. Have we tarried for our endue- 
ment? Have we suffered the Lord to adequately pre- 
pare us for work ? 

Then we are so impatient as to results. I know a lad 
who planted beans beside his mother's door, hoping that 
vines would creep up over it. But alas, he could not 
wait ; again and again he dug them up to see if they were 
sprouting. We are all doing something of the sort in our 
larger tasks. How many mothers have been praying for 
wayward sons since the days when they held them in their 
arms, and the days and years have come and gone and 
still no answer ! Is God's ear heavy that he cannot hear ? 
Hath he forgotten to be gracious ? No. O petitioner at 
heaven's gate, lean hard upon thy staff of promise : " He 
that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall 
doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves 
with him." Our duty is to scatter seed. Its germination 
and springing are not by the will of flesh nor by the will 
of man, but of God. 

Adoniram Judson wrought and prayed year after year 
with a consuming passion for souls, yet saw not one con- 



136 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

verted. Where was the fault? Nowhere. God was 
merely biding his time. At length the Pentecostal bless- 
ing came. There were thousands who began asking as 
with one voice, IC What shall we do ?" And the wilder- 
ness blossomed as the rose. Let us be patient. The har- 
vest will ripen, but it may ripen on our graves. Our faith 
should be willing to have it so. Remember the words of 
the Lord Jesus how he said, u Men ought always to pray 
and not to faint. John dreaming in Patmos saw golden 
vials full of odors, which he tells us were the prayers of 
the saints. Not one of them is forgotten before God. 

VI. Further, as to the great Apocalypse. We wait for 
our Lord's appearing. Maranatha ! The Lord cometh ! 
He shall so come as ye have seen him go up into 
heaven. His word was, " Behold, I come quickly !" 
Nearly two thousand years have passed since then ; but 
what of that? A thousand years are with him as a single 
day. It was therefore only as the day before yesterday 
that he promised it. " Pie that shall come will come and 
will make no tarrying." It will be in the fulness of time. 
As the bud opens, as the chrysalis bursts, as the sun rises, 
so shall he appear in the fulness of time. Meanwhile let 
us love his appearing and be preparing for it. 

" He 's faithful that hath promised ; he '11 surely come again. 
He '11 keep his tryst wi' me ; at what hour I dinna ken. 
But he bids me still to wait an' ready aye to be 
To gang at ony moment to my ain countree. 

<( So I 'm watching aye, an' singin' o y my hame as I wait, 
For the soun'ing o' his footfa' this side the shining gate. 
God gie his grace to ilk ane wha listens noo to me 
That we a' may gang in gladness to our ain countree." 



THEREFORE GET WISDOM. 1 37 

THEREFORE GET WISDOM. 

" Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. " Prov. 4:7. 



The desire of knowledge is common to all human 
kind. Dr. Johnson said, " A man would scarcely be willing 
to learn needlework ; but if he could arrive at it without 
the painful process of acquisition, he would e'en be glad 
to know how to mend his wife's ruffle." All knowledge is 
worth the having — the three R's, the arts and sciences 
and philosophy, the polite accomplishments, everything in 
the encyclopaedia — but far more desirable and infinitely 
above all is the knowledge of spiritual things. To this is 
given the name wisdom. Of this apprehension of truths 
in the higher province it is said, " Wisdom is not to be 
valued with the gold of Ophir. Wisdom is the principal 
thing ; therefore get wisdom ; and with all thy getting, get 
understanding;" that is, understanding with respect to 
these verities of the eternal world. 

We are confronted by great problems which it be- 
hooves us, as far as possible, to solve. Here are some of 
them : " If a man die, shall he live again ;" or " does death 
end all ?" " How shall a man be just with God ;" the sin- 
ner who has rebelled against the holy law of Jehovah, how 
shall he be reconciled with Him ? " What shall it profit 
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own life ; or 
what shall a man give in exchange for his life ?" These 
and kindred questions are worthy of the most strenuous 
endeavor on the part of every earnest man. 

I. It is possible to get wisdom, to arrive at a measura- 



138 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ble solution of these tremendous problems, to apprehend 
more or less of spiritual truth. 

We are living in an age of weak convictions, of guesses 
as distinguished from beliefs, of opinions rather than estab- 
lished views. The most popular phase of thought in these 
times is known as Agnosticism. The word itself is signifi- 
cant. It is the Greek equivalent of the Latin ignora?ice. 
A Greek agnostic would therefore in plain Latin be an 
ignoramus. Agnosticism asserts the unknowableness of 
everything super-sensible. It is Know-nothingism in re- 
ligion. It shuts a man up within the narrow province of 
the senses. It forbids him to go beyond the reach of his 
finger-tips. The original agnostic was Pyrrho of Elis. 
He was the universal skeptic, the cosmopolitan ignoramus, 
whose philosophy was merely an interrogation point. He 
regarded a perfect suspense of judgment as the highest 
accomplishment. He made ignorance to be the pillow of 
the soul. He said, " We know nothing, not even that we 
do know nothing. ,, The modern father of Agnosticism 
was Comte, who said in substance, " We are cognizant of 
impressions, but we cannot know whether they correspond 
to anything real. Our ideas may be mere phantasms ; it 
is impossible to determine whether there is anything be- 
hind them. We ourselves may be only as shadows walk- 
ing in a dream. " One of the modern apostles of agnosti- 
cism is Matthew Arnold, who defines God to be that Force 
in the universe, outside of man, that makes for righteous- 
ness. A Force ? What is an impersonal Force to a soul 
in trouble ? What use have we, as earnest men and wo- 
men, for this armless, eyeless, heartless Spectre of a God? 
Another of the apostles of this strange philosophy is Her- 
bert Spencer, whose rhetoric is marvellous as an illustra- 
tion of the art of going round about and concealing 
thought. Here is his definition of life : " Life is a definite 



THEREFORE GET WISDOM. 1 39 

combination of heterogeneous changes both simultaneous 
and successive in correspondence with external coexisten- 
ces and sequences. " And another of the apostles of this 
philosophy of spiritual ignorance is Maudesley, who ques- 
tions even the reality of thought. What is mind ? Phos- 
phorus. What is thought ? The product of atomic fric- 
tion. The process is like this : " An electric force runs 
along a pulpy cord called a nerve until it reaches a pulpy 
substance called the brain, and the result is an idea." 
Thus real things are dissipated into thin air ; materialism 
and idealism are combined into one ; Gnosticism becomes 
Agnosticism; Science become Nescience; and knowl- 
edge is made synonymous with ignorance. Our most 
arrogant thinkers to-day are those who insist that neither 
they nor anybody else can know anything at all beyond 
the province of the senses — just as the old-time mendi- 
cant friars were said to be prouder of the holes in their 
garments than princes were of their purple and fine linen. 

" The truest characters of ignorance 
Are pride and vanity and arrogance, 
As blind men use to bear their noses higher 
Than those who have their eyes and sight entire." 

In contravention of this way of thinking we hold that 
it is possible to know respecting spiritual things. We 
have the faculty wherewith to apprehend them. This fac- 
ulty or spiritual sense is the link binding us to God. 
There is an instrument called a spectroscope which is sen- 
sitive to certain chemical effects, so that, being turned upon 
one of the heavenly bodies millions of miles away it will 
detect nitrogen or sodium there. In like manner our spir- 
itual sense is sensitive to spiritual forces. It can appre- 
hend God and heaven and righteousness. We have this 
faculty as a divine inheritance ; it belongs to us by reason 
of our divine birth. God made us akin with himself, in 



140 THE GOSrEL OF GLADNESS. 

his own likeness and after his image, breathing into our 
nostrils the breath of life, so that we became living souls. 
At this point we are distinguished from all the lower 
orders of being. A fox calculates the width of the brook 
which it purposes to leap — an eagle reasons with respect 
to the distance from which it must swoop sheer downward 
upon its prey. But there is no creature among the lower 
orders that can apprehend a moral truth or commune with 
God. 

Then, moreover, the spiritual things which we desire 
to apprehend lie without our sphere of vision. God is not 
far from any one of us. Heaven is not a country in re- 
mote space. " Say not, Who shall ascend into heaven to 
bring him down, or who shall descend into the deep to 
bring him up ? for lo the word is nigh thee, even in thy 
heart and in thy mouth." An Indian hearing the rolling 
thunder overhead says, " The Great Spirit is yonder ;" 
feeling the breath of the wind upon his cheek, he rever- 
ently says, " The Great Spirit is round about me ;" mark- 
ing the pulsation of his heart, or quite as plainly the quick 
response of his conscience to a moral suggestion, he says, 
laying his hand upon his breast, " The Great Spirit is 
here," which is akin to what the Master meant when he 
said, "The kingdom of God is within you." Thus we are 
in the midst of the great problems. God is the ubiquitous 
One. We are environed by spiritual facts. Eternity 
stretches out here at my feet, an ocean vast and shoreless. 
Heaven and hell are worlds at my right and left hand, be- 
tween which I walk to the great unknown. And these 
worlds are separated from me by a gossamer veil so thin 
that the sting of an insect may rend it or the hand of 
death draw it aside at any moment. Thus we are sons 
and daughters of the Infinite, walking in the midst of infi- 
nite things. 



THEREFORE GET WISDOM. 141 

I do not say that we can exhaust all or any spiritual 
truth. Indeed there is no moral verity of which a man can 
say, " I count myself to have apprehended it." We can- 
not take into our lungs the entire atmosphere which en- 
velopes the earth fifty miles deep, but we can inhale one 
breath, and that will meet the necessities of life. We may 
not drink the ocean at a gulp ; but, athirst on our journey, 
we may dip into the brook and drink enough out of the 
palm to satisfy our thirst. We may not have the earth, 
whether we want it or not ; but we may have a little gar- 
den-plot in which to raise a few roses to make life sweeter 
and better. A mouse lived in a cheese-box until its prov- 
ender was "quite exhausted, and then, climbing up and 
looking over the edge, it cried in amazement, " I never 
dreamed the world was so large!" We are living here 
in like manner, shut up in the close environment of sense ; 
but one of these days we shall climb up and look over, 
and, O beloved, a great surprise awaits us ! As yet we 
have formed no conception, can form no conception, of 
the vast, interminable stretches of spiritual and eternal 
truth. 

II. It is our magnificent privilege and prerogative 
to ijiform ourselves concerning these things. 

"The mind of man is this world's true dimension ; 
And knowledge is the measure of his mind. 
And thus the mind in its vast comprehension 
Contains more worlds than all the world can find." 

We were not made to "grovel here below, fond of these 
trifling toys." We are divine and immortal. The things 
which most concern us are those that eye cannot see and 
hands cannot handle. The things which are seen are 
temporal, but the unseen are eternal. In reaching out for 
spiritual truth we give distinct evidence of our descent 
from God. 



142 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

Old Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, being in one of the 
rural districts of his empire, took occasion to visit the 
common schools. While interrogating a little child, he 
said, holding up a coin, " My dear, to what kingdom does 
this belong ?" She answered, " To the mineral kingdom, 
Sire." And, holding up an orange, " To what kingdom 
does this belong?'' " To the vegetable kingdom. " Then, 
laying his hand upon his breast, he said, " And, my dear, 
to what kingdom do I belong?" She paused a moment 
and answered, " Your Majesty, you belong to the king- 
dom of God." 

The lowest attitude which men can assume towards 
truth is that of credulity. Here dwell the superstitious 
folk, dupes, fetich-worshippers, the people who nail horse- 
shoes to the mast, tie an amulet about their necks, object 
to sitting at table in a company of thirteen ; the people 
who take everything on hearsay, who attach an awesome 
dignity to the ministerial office and believe what their 
pastor tells them without ever applying the acid test of 
heart and conscience. Like that collier in Wales who, 
being asked what the people of his parish believed, an- 
swered, " Why truly, sir, we believe as the preacher does," 
and being further asked, " What does the preacher be- 
lieve?" answered, " Why, sir, he believes as we do," and 
questioned once more, " What do you and your preacher 
believe?" replied, " Why surely we both believe the very 
same." 

A step higher and we reach the doubters. Doubt is 
nobler than credulity, A skeptic is a better man than an 
unthinking bigot, just as an active mind is better than a 
torpid one. Doubt, genuine doubt, is a good thing; not 
as an end, mark you, for so it is deadly, but as a means to 
an end. To be sure your skeptic is not a learned man ; 
for true learning implies conviction. He is a half-educated 



THEREFORE GET WISDOM. 143 

man ; and a little learning is ever a dangerous thing He 
is like the blind man whose eyes being partially opened 
said, " I see men as trees walking." The probability is 
that many people are mistaken as to their being doubters. 
Their doubt is unbelief, confirmed and ultimate. Men 
often call themselves honest doubters when they are pure 
"and simple infidels, contentedly dwelling in rejection of the 
truth. Doubt, genuine doubt, is not a thing to abide in, 
only a bit of ground large enough for a footprint, on which 
a man may step and straightway move on. Doubt is al- 
ways something to move away from. If you are a doubter, 
move on. It is dangerous to pause a moment. In God's 
name move on ! Doubt may be tested by a man's ago- 
nizing desire to be relieved of it. The man who honestly 
doubts as to Jesus Christ will not sleep to-night until he 
has solved the great question and accepted or rejected 
Christ as the only-begotten Son of God. There are two 
kinds of doubt as there are two twilights : one growing 
darker and darker, the shadows gathering, moon and stars 
vanishing, leaving naught but silence and solitude; the 
other leading on to light and gladness, brighter and bright- 
er until the shadows flee away and the day breaks. 

One more step and we have reached the highest ter- 
race of human character, to wit, belief. Here dwell the 
people who say, Credo. There is an impression that faith 
is an unsubstantial thing which has no evidence behind it. 
On the contrary, the best definition ever given of faith is 
this : "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi- 
dence of things not seen." It is substance resting on evi- 
dence; the substance of spiritual things resting on evidence 
which appeals to the moral sense. The just shall live by 
such faith. The man who gave that definition was himself a 
living illustration of the power of faith. He suffered, and 
in his pain he was upheld by the hope of a better time 



144 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

coming. Paul was precisely what his faith made him. 
And indeed the character of any man is measured by his 
creed. Pope wrote substantially, 

" For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; 
His faith cannot be wrong whose life is right." 

But let us transpose and read the other way- 

" For modes of life let righteous pedants fight ; 
His life cannot be wrong whose faith is right." 

There is no such thing as inconsistency. A man lives up 
to what he believes : not always to what he says he be- 
lieves, but to what, he does believe in his inmost heart. 
As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. 

III. It is our bounden ditty \ therefore, to have sound 
convictions as to spiritual truth. We have no right to 
allow the great problems to go by default. If there is a 
God, it behooves us to know it. If my soul is a bundle of 
powers under control of a sovereign will, it is incumbent 
upon me to know it. If eternity is real, stretching out be- 
yond me like a boundless ocean, it behooves me to ask 
with the utmost solemnity, Whither? If sin has defiled 
my whole nature, if the law has sent forth its retributive 
sentence, " The soul that sinneth it shall die," and if God 
has provided a means of salvation through the sacrifice of 
his well-beloved Son, then I am not worthy of my man- 
hood unless I accept the situation and make the very best 
of it. 

But how shall we know ? How shall we get this wis- 
dom ? Not by the scientific method. God never yet 
became a Q. E. D. 

Here, however, is the secret. In James 1:5 is a great 
promise: " If any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of 
God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not: 
and it shall be given unto him." God is light; open the 



THEREFORE GET WISDOM. 145 

windows and let God shine in. The fear of the Lord is 
the beginning of wisdom. Bow down at the mercy-seat 
and ask him to illuminate the dark chambers of your soul. 
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he 
know them, for they are spiritually discerned. " Canst 
thou by searching find out God ?" The monks of four 
hundred years ago might have seen Jupiter's moons, had 
they only been willing to look through Galileo's telescope, 
but they would not. They insisted on seeing nothing 
beyond the reach of their naked eyes, so they fell short of 
their opportunity and the world moved on without them. 
Prayer is our telescope through which we look at spiritual 
things, discerning the realities which are afar off. No 
man, unaided, ever yet found out God or theology. 
Therefore, O man, to your knees ! Commune with 
heaven, reason with the Infinite, turn your eyes towards 
the things which are unseen and eternal ! Get wisdom 
from God! 

But at the best we shall only touch the outer borders. 
It is not possible with our limited powers to apprehend 
the sublime things of the Kingdom. The nearer we ap- 
proach them the more dazzling are they to our fleshly 
eyes. To profess knowledge is to convict ourselves of 
ignorance. 

"All things I thought I knew ; but now confess 
The more I know I know, I know the less." 

But if we are following in the train of the incarnate Truth 
there are great surprises in store for us. A blind boy 
who had come under the influence of one of our mission- 
aries in India was greatly moved by the thought that his 
sight would one day be restored. He was fond of repeat- 
ing, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in my flesh 

The Gospel of Gladness. 10 



146 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes 
shall behold, and not another's." In his last moments, 
after a long season of apparent unconsciousness, he aroused 
himself, and rolling his blind eyes he exclaimed, "Copaul 
sees ! The darkness has cleared away : I see heaven 
and the King in his beauty. Tell the missionary that the 
blind boy sees !" 

O beloved in Christ, there are revelations awaiting 
us which, in this narrow home of the senses, we dream 
not of. Here we know in part and see as in a glass 
darkly ; but there we shall see face to face and know 
even as we are known. No more mists and vapors ; no 
more shadows on the soul. Reality ! Reality ! Blessed 
be God for the promise of the break of day ! 



AN 

INCREDIBLE RUMOR: 



"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the 
Lord revealed?" Isa. 53:1. " But though he had done so 
many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him ; 
that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which 
he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report ? and to whom 
hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" John 12:37, 38. 
" But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, 
Lord, who hath believed our report ?" Rom. 10 :i6. 

About 700 B. C. there was a great revival in Israel. 
It followed the dark reign of Ahaz. He had fostered 
idolatry in its grossest forms. The flames of human sac- 
rifice, kindled on all the high places round about Jerusa- 
lem, cast a lurid glare upon the pillars of the neglected 
temple. The schools of the prophets were filled with 
wizards and necromancers. The king forced his own 
children to pass through the idolatrous fires ; the people 
bowed down and kissed their hands to the winged horses 
of the sun. But there was one man who remained faith- 
ful to the religion of the true God. He prayed for the 
nation and called upon all to repent and return to God. 
And at length he saw the reward of his faithfulness. The 
blessing came upon Israel as grateful as the morning dew. 
The songs of pure worship were heard again in the tem- 
ple and the people bowed at the altars of Jehovah. This 
return to truth and righteousness was, however, merely 
temporary. It was as the flashing of Northern Lights ; 



148 AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. 

the returning darkness was deeper than ever. King and 
people went back to their abominations, and the prophet 
disappeared in the gloom of the gathering night, uttering 
this sad lament, " Who hath believed our report? and to 
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" In vain had he 
preached truth and righteousness. In vain had he proph- 
esied the coming of the Holy One. On the eyes of the 
stiff-necked people a thick film of blindness had gathered. 
They could not see ; they would not hear. In vain was 
God's arm made bare for their redemption, as a workman 
rolls back his sleeve for the undertaking of a mighty task. 
He would have delivered them : he would have gloriously 
redeemed them ; but they would not believe it. 

Seven hundred years went by, and around the spur of 
Mount Olivet passed a procession on its way to the Holy 
City. " Hosanna ! Hosanna to the Son of David !" cried 
those that went before and those that followed after. Je- 
sus entered the temple, and from the porch where Isaiah 
had vainly besought the people to repent and believe he 
preached the glorious gospel. But in him there was no 
form nor comeliness that men should desire him. He 
seemed to them as a root out of a dry ground. He was 
despised and rejected. The heart of the people was in no 
wise changed, as Esaias had written, " Who hath believed 
our report? and to whom is God's arm revealed?" 

When all was over and the glorious work had been 
verified by the Saviour's triumph over death, Paul, wri- 
ting to the people of Rome, bids them believe that their 
salvation is near ; he would have them rejoice in the good 
news of deliverance from sin. " How beautiful upon the 
mountains," he exclaims, "are the feet of him that bring- 
eth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" Yet still the 
message was rejected, and the apostle finds utterance for his 
disappointment in the prophet's words, <l Who hath be- 



AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. I49 

lieved our report ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord re- 
vealed?" 

And here am I, eighteen hundred years after, preach- 
ing the same gospel. Has human nature changed in the 
meantime ? Nay, human nature is the one constant fac- 
tor in history. There are multitudes who still reject the 
offer of redemption in Jesus Christ. The truth is unto 
some a savor of life unto life ; but to many, alas ! it is a 
savor of death unto death. 

What is this report which the people so persistently 
reject ? It is the story of God's intervention in behalf of 
our ruined race. He so loved the world that he gave his 
only-begotten Son to redeem it. It is a message of joy 
unspeakable and full of glory. How is it then that any 
should reject it? Ruskin says, " Pride is at the bottom 
of all our blunders." The greatest blunder that a human 
soul can ever make is to refuse the proffer of salvation in 
Jesus Christ. And pride is at the bottom of it. 

I. Pride of intellect. We all know something, and 
none knows over-much. " A little learning is a danger- 
ous thing." The temptation is to reject everything which 
does not fall within the grasp of reason. In fact, how- 
ever, the wisdom of man is foolishness with God. The 
moment that we approach anything divine, we are be- 
yond our depth. Observe some of the fundamental facts 
of the gospel over which we stumble because they baffle 
us. 

(1.) The Manger. " Great is the mystery of godliness ; 
God made manifest in the flesh : the angels desire to look 
into it." Not for a moment must it be supposed that a 
finite mind can comprehend the mystery of the Incarna- 
tion. If a man were to enter here with a tin cup, a foot 
rule, and a pair of steelyards, and tell us that he meant 
therewith to measure the ocean, compass the earth, and 



150 AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. 

weigh the clouds of heaven, we should know that he had 
gone daft. It were greater folly still for any man to think 
himself capable of solving this preeminent spiritual mys- 
tery. That, however, is absolutely no reason at all why 
we should reject it. 

(2.) The Cross. How can the innocent suffer for the 
guilty ? How can the infinite God bear the sins of his 
creatures ? How can justice be satisfied by vicarious 
pain ? These and kindred questions crowd thick and fast 
upon us. But the mystery of God's vicarious death in 
our behalf is really no more incredible than the lower but 
like mystery of a mother's love. And a mother's love is 
the commonest thing in the world. A child born out of 
her travail pains, carried on her weary arms, and feeding 
upon her life, tears away from her restraining care at 
length, plunges into sin, and breaks her heart. To insist 
then upon puncturing that heart and analyzing its blood, 
finding there so much of serum, so much of coagulum, 
with the proper proportion of iron and phosphorus, would 
be no more preposterous than for God's children to un- 
dertake, by what is called the scientific method, to fathom 
the doctrine of his redemptive love and vicarious pain for us. 

(3.) The Open Sepulchre. He that was dead is alive 
again. This also is repugnant to our reason. How can 
the dead live ? And yet life out of death, the mystery 
of mysteries, is all around us and ever forcing itself upon 
us. I stand in a ploughed field where the farmer has 
scattered the seed, and never think of asking, " Can this 
death beneath my feet, return to life ?" I know it will. 
But I stand in Greenwood where the dead are lying 
all about me, and despite the universal analogy of na- 
ture, I cry aloud, " O God, can these dead live ?" And 
the Lord answers, " The trumpet shall sound and the 
dead shall rise." Then shall be brought to pass the 



AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. IJI 

saying that is written, " Death is swallowed up in vic- 
tory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is 
thy victory ?" 

We must expect mystery in the spiritual province. 
How indeed, could it be otherwise when God himself is 
the. fundamental and greatest mystery? Canst thou by 
searching find him out? How little the definitions of God 
mean to us. He is " that circle whose centre is everywhere 
and whose circumference is nowhere." This means only 
that he is infinitely beyond us. We may know that he is 
and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek 
him ; but there we pause. All God's works are like him- 
self, mysterious. Here is the line of differentiation be- 
tween our work and his. I may understand a steam- 
engine and possibly be able to take it apart and explain 
its wheels and pistons and cylinders ; but the moment I 
undertake to deal with a snowflake, a dewdrop, or an elec- 
tric flash, I am at my wits' end. Man can fathom what 
man has done or can do ; but it is the glory of God to 
conceal a matter. His works are past finding out. We 
veil our faces before him. 

II. Moral pride. The worst of us thinks moderately 
well of himself. Pass through the corridors of The 
Tombs and ask the criminals there to pass judgment on 
their own cases, and the chances are that every one will 
pronounce himself a pretty fair sort of man. No religion 
can commend itself to the average man which antagonizes 
this confidence in personal merit. We are not all in The 
Tombs, but we are all " concluded (literally, imprisoned) 
under sin." There is no difference ; we have all sinned 
and come short of the glory of God. 

(i.) The suggestion of sin is abhorrent to us. It dis- 
turbs our equanimity ; it troubles our sleep. We are rea- 
sonably comfortable until Jesus Christ comes our way and 



152 AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. 

brings accusation against us. His own entire life was a 
protest against sin. His preaching was a two-edged 
sword, dividing asunder the soul and spirit of a guilty 
man. His death was a terrific outcry against the horror 
of sin. No man wants to be shaken thus out of his ease. 
Christ tears away the turf from our assumption of virtue 
and exposes a grave-full of " dead men's bones and un- 
cleanness." Little wonder that a sinner will have none 
of it. 

(2.) We do not like the notion of repentance. Herod, 
being disturbed by John the Baptist's cry, " Repent ye ! 
Repent ye !" cast him into Machserus, fed him on bread 
and water, and ultimately beheaded him, only to be haunt- 
ed by his wraith walking up and down and crying still, 
" Repent ! Repent !" We all would kill John the Bap- 
tist could we catch him. For he ever goes before the gos- 
pel with his weird cry and troubles the soul that the Good 
Physician may heal it. 

(3.) The doctrine of Free Grace is repugnant to us. 
The gospel says, If you are ever saved it must be without 
money and without price. Our pride revolts. We want 
to be doing. Every merit-maker on earth — the moralist, 
the Brahman devotee measuring his length along the weary 
way to the Ganges, the humble payer of Peter's pence — 
is doing his utmost to earn salvation. We would cheer- 
fully pay; but Croesus himself could not, with all his gen- 
erous possessions, buy one of the clusters from the King's 
vineyard. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters ; and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat ; 
yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without 
price." We would be glad to suffer if suffering could ex- 
piate the mislived past ; but we cannot. Christ has suffered 
once for all. No penance can save us ; no sacrifice can 
avail. 



AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. 1 53 

Once for all. O sinner, receive it ! 
Once for all. O brother, believe it ! 
Cursed by the Law and bruised by the Fall, 
Christ hath redeemed us once for all. 

What then remains ? How shall a sinner be saved ? 
By simply accepting the proffer of pardon and life. He 
That believeth shall be saved. Faith is the appropriating 
hand. Is this all ? Ay ; and it is the slightness of it that 
offends us. All our pride rises up within us. We will not 
be saved gratis. We will not be thus beholden to God. 
A proud soul will pay its ow r n reckoning. It will not be 
humbled like a mendicant. But it must. It must take 
life for nothing or it will never take it at all. We must 
come to Christ as Constantine came to the cross on Cal- 
vary, taking off his crown and purple robes and making 
himself of no reputation before that effigy of divine mercy. 
We must become nothing in the presence of Christ, to 
the end that Christ may become everything to us. 

There are two concluding thoughts. 

(i.) The report that God has loved us and given him- 
self for us is true. This is the news, the god-spel, the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God. Whether men believe 
it or not does not affect the truth. God bared his omnip- 
otent arm on Calvary to work redemption for us. His 
own word stands voucher for the rumor. The hearts and 
consciences of a great multitude of saints redeemed an- 
swer Yea and Amen to it. On one of Bradlaugh's jour- 
neys through Cornwall he delivered an infidel address to 
a large assemblage of miners. At the close of the address 
he gave the customary opportunity to any who might 
wash to question or reply to him. Possibly he thought 
some callow youth would take up the gauntlet and be 
easily disposed of. But an old woman, wearing an antique 
bonnet, with a basket on her arm, came forward to the 



154 AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. 

platform. She said, " Sir, I paid thrippence to hear ye tell 
us of something better than the gospel of Christ. This 
was what your placard promised, that you would show us 
'something better than the gospel/ But ye have not 
done it. Let me tell you what this gospel has done for 
me. I was left a widow thirty years ago with ten children 
to care for. I trusted in Christ, and he helped me. All 
my little ones have grown up to be respected and beloved. 
I was often sore pressed and the flour was low in the bar- 
rel, but my Lord ever helped me. Many a time my heart 
was near breaking for my boys and girls, but he raised me 
up. And now I am old and poor and decrepit, but happy 
as a morning lark, and looking for the city which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Sir, ye 
have cheated me of my thrippence. Ye have not told me 
of anything that can be compared with the gospel of my 
Lord." The infidel rubbed his hands and smilingly said 
to his audience, " Really this good woman is so happy in 
her delusion that it would be a pity to undeceive her." 
" No, no," she said, " that will never do, and your laugh- 
ing does not alter the case. I have given you proof of 
the gospel, and what have you answered ? Naught but 
a sneer, a patronizing fling — weapons from the armory ol 
folly that a man like yourself should be ashamed of. Sir, 
ye have cheated me of my thrippence and ye are not an 
honest man." Thus it is written, God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the 
weak things of the world to confound the things which 
are mighty. Our gospel has been tried in ten thousand 
times ten thousand cases similar to this, and found to be 
gloriously, gloriously true. 

(2.) And if it were not true, still let us cherish it. If it 
be only a fond delusion, let us in any case continue in it. 
If but a dream, let no rude hand or unkind voice awake 



AN INCREDIBLE RUMOR. 1 55 

us. If there is no God, no Almighty Friend to care for 
this world and its suffering creatures, still let us dream oi 
a kind Providence and murmur in our sleep, "Abba, Fa- 
ther." If death is really the end of all and our future is 
no better than that of the beasts that perish, let us dream 
nevertheless that we, being made in the divine likeness, 
are to live for ever ; and in our sleep let us still see visions 
of the heavenly city with its pearly gates and golden streets 
and the ineffable glory shining over it. If they which have 
fallen asleep in Christ are perished, if our parting with 
dear ones who have gone before us into the unknown was 
not Auf Wiederseheyi, but Farewell for ever, still let me 
dream that one day I shall have them again, that I shall 
touch their dear hands and kiss their lips in the glad 
day of the reunions in our Father's house. In the name 
of all that is kindly and gracious, leave me to my fond 
delusions ; let me still and ever dream on. 

But the gospel is true. This is no cunningly devised 
fable. We speak that we do know and testify that we 
have seen. God's arm has been made bare for us. With 
yonder cross he has beaten down, as with Thor's hammer, 
the gates of hell. Here life and immortality are brought 
to light. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all accepta- 
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 
He that believeth shall live. Rescue is at hand. The 
sound of the bugle is heard upon the hills. Let us throw 
open the great gates of our hearts that God with his great 
salvation may enter in. 



THE 



TREASURES OF THE BIBLE AS A BOOK 
AMONG BOOKS. 



" Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of 
heaven is like unto a man which is an householder, which 
bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matt. 
13:52. 

Here is a brief parable. The door into the meaning 
of the parabolic teachings of Jesus turns upon the hinges 
of Oriental custom. Were it not for this fact it might be 
impossible to interpret them. The customs of the Orient 
have remained substantially unchanged to this day as if 
to assist us in apprehending the truth. The farmer still 
goes out with a forked stick over his shoulder to plough 
his field; Ruth still gleans after the reapers; Rebecca 
still leads her flock to the well and lets down the water- 
pot upon her hand to give the wayfarer to drink ; Laz- 
arus still sits at the gate waiting for his plate of crumbs ; 
the indolent still stand with folded hands in the market- 
place ; the bridesmaids still carry their lamps along the 
dark streets, and the cry is heard, " Behold the bridegroom 
cometh I" 

As to the reference in this particular parable : a trav- 
eller has come to an Oriental home at eventide and is 
being entertained. His host, desirous of showing his 
importance, brings out his wealth and spreads it before 
him. There were no banks or other places of safe de- 



THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 1 57 

posit in those days. Treasure was buried in the ground 
or kept in a recess in the wall. The householder here 
goes to his treasury and bring out things new and old : 
antique coins ; necklaces worn by princes of long ago ; 
golden shields bearing the dint of old-time battles ; pre- 
cious stones plucked from the^crowns of captive kings; 
the loot of the campaigns of ages. All these are spread 
before the eyes of his wondering guest. Now, says Jesus, 
the scribe is the custodian of God's treasury. The key is 
at his girdle. His business is to bring forth the wealth of 
Scripture, new truths and old truths, to dazzle the eyes. 
The preacher is the scribe. It is his special function to 
expound the divine Word. 

We have to do just now with the Scriptures as a 
Book among books. Erase the name of Jehovah from 
its title page — were that possible— and regard it for the 
nonce as merely a volume in the world's library. In 
which case we shall find that no book in all the world's 
literature is for a moment or in any particular to be com- 
pared with it. This is the preeminent classic, with 
respect to which there is practical unanimity among 
thoughtful men. In Froude's life of Buhyan he says that 
amid the enforced silence and solitude of Bedford jail the 
prisoner had only two books and one of these was the 
Bible, of which he adds significantly, " The Bible is a 
literature in itself, the richest and rarest in human thought, 
so that he who masters it is a liberally educated man." 

Let us now visit this treasury and bring forth some 
of the things, new and old, which commend it as worthy 
to be called the Word of God. 

I. The Poetry of the Bible. One third of the Old 
Testament is in poetic form. The earliest of all — and 
probably the oldest scrap of poetry in existence — is the 
Song of the Sword in Genesis 4 : 23, 24. It seems to 



158 THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 

be commemorative of some blood-shedding in that early 
time: 

" Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; 

Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech ! 

I have slain a man for wounding me, 

A young man for smiting me. 

If Cain was seven times avenged, 

Then Lamech seventy-seven-fold." 

Alas, that ever since those primitive times the world has 
been singing the Sword Song ! 

The sweetest hymn of the springtime is that of Sol- 
omon. All the poets have sung the vernal beauties and 
the renewal of life, but never one so sweetly as this : 

" My beloved spake and said unto me, 
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away ; 
For lo, the winter is past, 
The rain is over and gone : 
The flowers appear on the earth ; 
The time of the singing of birds is come, 
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 
The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, 
And the vines are in blossom, 
They give forth their fragrance. 
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away !" 

The most stirring of battle songs is that of Deborah. 
The " Marseillaise/' " God save the Queen," and the " Bat- 
tle Hymn of the Republic " are flat, stale, and unprofit- 
able beside it. She summons the princes of Israel and 
the people to the fray. We hear the footfall of the multi- 
tude rushing towards the high places of the field. The 
stars in their courses are marshalled to fight against Sis- 
era. The river Kishon, that mighty river, sweeps past 
in tumult, bearing the terror-stricken enemy in rout 
towards the sea. And above the hoarse artillery of 
heaven, the roar of the torrents, the shriek of the dying, 



THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 159 

we hear the song of the prophetess inspiring the victors 
and invoking maledictions upon those who lingered among 
the bleating flocks : 

" Curse ye Meroz, 
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; 
Because they came not^feo the help of the Lord, 
To the help of the Lord against the mighty ! 
Through the window looks 
The mother of Sisera. 
Why lingers his cart in coming ? 
Why tarry the wheels of his chariot ? 
Thus let them perish, 
All thine enemies, O Jehovah ! 
O my soul, 
Thou hast trodden down strength." 

Of this memorable battle song it may be said, as Car- 
lyle wrote of Burns' " Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," 
that it should be sung with the voice of the whirlwind. 

And where is there anything like Habakkuk's vision 
from the watch-tower? He sees the Almighty marching 
through history : 

" God came from Teman, 
And the Holy One from Mount Paran ; 
His glory covered the heavens 
And the earth was full of his praise !" 

Before him goes the pestilence and burning coals are 
under his feet ; on either side the hills are bowing and the 
mountains are scattering in affright. The ocean utters 
his voice and lifts his hands on high. Sun and moon 
stand still in their habitations at the flash of his speeding 
arrows and the shining of his spear. With flail in hand 
he strides through the ages and generations threshing the 
nations in his wrath. 

The New Testament opens with the song of the angels : 



l6o THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 

"To you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
good-will towards men !" 

Is there anything sublimer than that anywhere? Yes, 
the last song of the Book, the adoration of the angels : 
" Worthy art thou to receive honor and power and riches 
and wisdom and strength and glory and blessing for ever 
and ever. Amen." 

Where are the singers in literature ? Some call them in- 
spired — Virgil and Homer and burning Sappho, Goethe 
and Schiller, Milton and Shakespeare — but how they 
dwindle beside the bards of Scripture! They are as twit- 
tering swallows in a field of morning larks. Never have 
poets sung like those who dipped their pens in " Siloa's 
brook that flows fast by the oracle of God." 

II. Let us visit the treasury again and bring forth 
some of its wealth of Eloquence. We begin with Judah's 
plea for his brethren at the Egyptian court, probably the 
oldest display of oratory in existence. He was a stranger 
in a strange land, arraigned with his brethren on a crimi- 
nal charge. The possibility of death confronted them. 
Over them brooded the memory of a dreadful secret sin. 
It was under such conditions that he presented his argu- 
ment, earnest and pathetic almost unto death. " His 
fancy plays with rare delicacy around the venerable form 
of that patriarch who in the distant home is waiting for 
Benjamin, and whose very life is bound up in the life 
of the child. For Benjamin and that aged father he 
supplicates with tearful fervency : ' And it shall come 
to pass that when we come to thy servant, my father, 
and he seeth that the lad is not with us, he shall die. 
We shall bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to the 
grave P " 

The plea of Aaron for the emancipation of Israel has 



THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. l6l 

no parallel in history. Day after day, sixteen times suc- 
cessively, he comes before the tyrant Pharaoh wielding the 
rod of Jehovah and in his name demanding that the chains 
of the people shall be broken. How puny seem the forms 
of Wilberforce and Lloyd Garrison in the presence of this 
mighty liberator! "Thus saittrjehovah, Let my people 
go." The river of Egypt rolls with blood, reptiles infest 
its soil, the sun is veiled in darkness, and the pestilence 
stalks abroad, the harvests are beaten down by angry 
tempests, and the wail of death goes up at midnight from 
every home ! Then the people march forth ; three millions 
of slaves delivered by the irresistible voice of a devoted 
man. 

The time would fail me to tell of Nathan and his para- 
ble of The Little Ewe Lamb, or of John the Baptist, taught 
in the wilderness to cry, " Repent ye, repent ye, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand !" or of Stephen courting 
death in his eager passion to unveil the sin of the people 
in crucifying God's well-beloved Son ; or of Peter at Pen- 
tecost, preaching so mightily that three thousand souls 
were brought sobbing penitently before the feet of Christ ; 
or of Paul on Mars' Hill, setting forth the doctrine of hu- 
man rights in words that were the foregleam of all subse- 
quent manifestoes in behalf of civil and ecclesiastical free- 
dom : " God hath made of one blood all nations of men 
for to dwell on the face of the earth." 

The crowning eloquence of the Scriptures is that of the 
Master. The common people heard him gladly. He 
spake as one having authority. They wondered at the 
gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. A 
Roman guard being sent to take him, listened, were cap- 
tivated, and returned without their prisoner. " Why have 
ye not brought him ?" their masters demanded. It w r as a 
strange answer they gave, these men of battle, proof 

ii 



l62 THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 

against sentiment, hardened to all merciless tasks, " Never 
man spake like this man !" 

III. We go again to the treasury and bring forth some 
of its Historical wealth. Here we have the only authentic 
record running back to the infancy of time. All other 
chronicles are fragmentary. Caesar and Xenophon wrote 
episodes; but here are the universal annals. This is a 
deep river, flowing backward in its course past the ruined 
cities of antiquity, in tortuous windings whose roar and 
thunder are as the confused noise of battle, through the 
quiet pastures of peace, through the solitudes of the pri- 
meval ages, past the confusion of tongues, the deluge, the 
creation of man, past that remote period when the earth 
was without form and void, onward still past the floating 
nebulae, and still beyond to the ineffable glory. Its source 
is beneath the heavenly throne, as it is written, " In the 
beginning, God." 

And this Scriptural chronicle is entirely trustworthy. 
It has stood the test of adverse criticism for long centu- 
ries, and has come out of the ordeal without the smell of 
fire upon it. In these last days the archaeologists, dig- 
ging among the ruins of ancient cities, have unearthed 
many confirmations of Holy Writ. Voices have come 
from mummy crypts and buried forums and sculptured 
obelisks saying Yea and Amen to it. 

The cradle of the race was in the Mesopotamian Val- 
ley. Thence came the nations, the religions, and the 
political organizations of the world. But of the primitive 
civilizations of that Valley next to nothing was known 
until about forty years ago, when a royal library was 
found dating back to 640 B. C, written in the cuneiform 
character. Here are text-books of every sort. Here are 
tablets commemorating the deeds of sovereigns who 
reigned 2000 B. C. Here is the name of Nimrod, the 



THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 1 63 

mighty hunter before the Lord. Out of the mist of the 
primitive civilization thus disclosed rise the towers of old 
Babylon. We find here an account of the deluge and a 
tradition of the fall. Here is the story of the raid of the 
four kings and of many other occurrences which had pre- 
viously rested upon the sole authority of the Scriptures. 
Thus voices from the tombs are continually and more and 
more declaring the historical authority of this Word of 
God. 

IV. Let us glance at the Scientific wealth of the Bible. 
We are aware that the science of the Scriptures has been 
persistently assailed in these last days. It is a common 
thing to hear it said, " The Bible was not intended to be a 
scientific book," giving the impression that it makes little 
difference whether the science of the Scriptures is trust- 
worthy or not. This, however, is not a matter of small 
moment. If the book is not veracious in respect to sci- 
ence, what ground have we for committing ourselves to 
its spiritual guidance? A minister who proves himself 
unreliable in secular matters, whose opinions cannot be 
trusted anywhere except in religion, would not for a mo- 
ment pass unchallenged as a spiritual counsellor. The 
question is not whether the Bible was intended to be a 
scientific book or not, but whether the Bible is true. It is 
not true unless it is reliable every way. If it cannot be 
trusted in other respects, where is the ground for relying 
upon it in matters pertaining to truth and morals ? 

Observe that the Old Testament Scriptures abound 
everywhere in scientific allusions. They treat of biology, 
ethnology, astronomy, geology, zoology, indeed of every 
department of natural science. You would have to tear 
the Book to tatters if you were to take all references to 
science out of it. But these statements have not yet been 
successfully impugned. All the substantial discoveries of 



164 THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 

science — observe, I do not say dreams and hypotheses — 
are continually indorsing and verifying them. It is not to 
be denied that multitudes of undevout scientists are clam- 
oring against them. But the Bible has withstood the 
criticism of centuries, and this will not affect it. 

V. The Ethics of the Scriptures. By universal con- 
sent the Bible is the standard of universal morals. We 
take our stand between Sinai and Olivet, the two moun- 
tains of the Law and the Gospel, and find here the source 
of the world's jurisprudence and the sanctions of all civil 
and social courtesy. 

Here also is a portrait gallery of worthies in whom 
the precepts of morality have found their best illustration, 
Enoch, Abraham, David, Elijah, Ruth the virtuous, the 
Marys, Paul, and the Sons of Thunder. What a roll- 
call of mighty and virtuous ones could be gotten from 
these pages ! Yet they are all " concluded under sin," 
and all join in the confession that they " come short of 
the glory of God." There is one among them, however, 
whose face shines as the sun shineth in his strength. 
Over him we write, "The Wonderful," and under him, 
" Verily this was a righteous man." Oh how it helps all 
struggling men and women to have so glorious an ideal ! 
In him we behold duty, holiness, manhood, character. 
He is the only one who ever lived on earth of whom it 
could be said, He was as good as the law. In him all 
graces were combined, as all colors blend in the white 
solar ray — the golden glory of the sunrise, the deep blue 
of the heavens, the emerald of the sea. Thus Christ com- 
bines all virtues and excellencies and stands forth in his- 
tory as the Ideal Man. 

VI. Once more let us bring forth from the storehouse 
its wealth of Doctrine. For the Scriptures are of pre- 
eminent value with respect to spiritual truth. 



THE TREASURES OF . THE BIBLE. 165 

There are some things which our souls are aching to 
know. We can get along without science, we can live 
without the lower forms of knowledge, but we must some- 
how be advised respecting the problems touching our 
eternal destiny. Is there a God? And are we immor- 
tal? Shall we stand before hirn^in judgment, and live 
for ever in weal or woe ? Is there a heaven ? Is there a 
hell ? Can a man be delivered from the shame and an- 
guish of his sin ? These are questions that will not down. 
They demand an answer at the hands of every earnest 
man. 

These are the things embraced in that old question, 
"What is truth?" The Academy by the Ilissus, the 
painted porch of Zeno, the garden of Epicurus, repre- 
sented vain efforts to answer it. Canst thou by wisdom 
find out God ? The despair of the world found expres- 
sion on the curled lip of Pilate when he satirically asked, 
"What is truth?" But it has pleased God to make known 
in the Scriptures the things which the unaided reason of 
man could never have arrived at. 

(1.) They reveal God. They reveal him as I AM 
THAT I AM. He is "the Lord God, merciful and gra- 
cious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy." He is Je- 
hovah Tsidkenu, our guide and helper. He is — best of 
all — our Father in heaven. Nowhere but in the Scrip- 
tures can we thus perceive him. 

(2.) The Bible also reveals the true nature of man. 
He was created in God's likeness and after his image, a 
soul living and destined to live for ever. He fell from his 
high estate and Ichabod was written on his brow — " The 
glory hath departed." But blessed possibilities still open 
up before him. All is not lost. 

(3.) The Bible makes known the great at-onement 
between God and man. It points to the cross as the 



166 THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 

point whereat God can be just and the justifier of the un- 
godly. It bids us believe that God himself, taking flesh 
upon him, bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that 
whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have 
everlasting life. Other books have poems, but no other 
sings the song of salvation and gives the troubled soul a 
peace that floweth like a river. Other books have elo- 
quence, but no other enables us to behold God himself 
stretching out his pierced hands and pleading with men 
to turn and live. Other books have history, but no other 
tells the story of divine love reaching from the remote 
councils of eternity to the consummation on Calvary, "the 
old, old story of Jesus and his love." Other books have 
science, but no other can give the soul a definite assur- 
ance with respect to spiritual life, so that it may say, " I 
know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is 
able to keep that which I have committed to him against 
that day." Other books set forth philosophy, but no 
other makes us wise with respect to those great doctrines 
which centre in the living God. 

This, therefore, is the book to live by, the one book 
that makes the future bright and brings heaven near. 
Other systems of philosophy are like ships which carry 
their lights at the stern, "casting a lurid glare on the 
white wake of receding foam, warning of no peril and 
lighting to no anchorage." This book carries a search- 
light at the masthead, showing the dangers on every side 
and throwing a splendor on the waters clear to heaven's gate. 

And this is the book to die by. I would that you 
might have known my friend Parmentier, an old Hugue- 
not, dim-eyed, pain-stricken, bent with years, friendless 
and penniless. In his humble hut he had three things to 
comfort him: the flowers that grew in the little garden 
before his door (how they flourished under his loving 



THE TREASURES OF THE BIBLE. 167 

care!), the birds — a score of singing birds that hung in 
the sunshine of his solitary window — to whom he talked 
as little girls talk with their dolls, and his Bible, well 
thumbed and greatly beloved. The last time I saw him, 
we bent together over the fourteenth chapter of St. John, 
and the last words we read were^these, " Peace I leave 
with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world 
giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, 
neither let it be afraid." The blessed Book is resting on 
the coverlet of many a death-bed to-day. Its truth is 
the strong staff of the dying as they pass on to the city 
of God. 

Remember then, beloved, the word of the Master, how 
he said, " Search the Scriptures." Search them as for 
hid treasure. And blessed is the man who finds here 
the secret of eternal life. 

"This is the field where hidden lies 
The pearl of price unknown ; 
That merchant is divinely wise 
Who makes that pearl his own." 

When we were children we were led by fairy guides into 
subterranean caves, where vaulted roofs and fretted walls 
sparkled with jewels and precious stones. Thus, to the 
reader whose eyes are opened by the touch of the Spirit, 
do the Scriptures glow with the unspeakable riches of 
truth. But amid their sparkling splendors there is none 
so bright as Christ himself. He is the Kohinoor, the 
crown-diamond among them all. 



SUNRISE. 



" Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the 
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
have the light of life." John 8:12. 

God is light, " essential, original, unapproachable." 
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Christ is 
the manifestation of God. He is the brightness of the 
Father's glory, and as such also is light. He was prefig- 
ured in the golden candlestick that threw its radiance upon 
the ceremonies of the Holy Place. He was set forth in 
the Shechinah, the luminous cloud that led the children of 
Israel on their journey to the promised land. His advent 
was prophesied as the coming of the morning : " But unto 
you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness 
arise with healing in his wings." Mai. 4 : 2. 

We shall the better understand these words, " I am the 
light of the world," if we review the circumstances under 
which they were spoken. It was at the Feast of Taberna- 
cles. The ministry of Jesus was drawing to a close. He 
had much to do and the time was short. " I must work 
while it is day," said he, "for the night cometh." His 
home during the feast was with his friends at the suburban 
town cf Bethany. It was his custom to rise early in the 
morning, walk into Jerusalem, and spend the day there in 
preaching and working miracles. His enemies, who had 
pursued him long, were now closing in upon him. In 
vain thus far had they set gins and snares for his feet; but 
on this particular morning fate seemed to favor them. 



SUNRISE. 169 

The Lord, having " prevented the day," was in the temple 
porch preaching to the early worshippers, when an inter- 
ruption occurred. A boisterous company, led by certain 
rabbis, dragged through the gate and into his presence a 
wretched woman who had been taken in the act of adul- 
tery, probably in one of the pilgrim tents. They threw 
her down upon the marble pavement, crying, " Moses in 
the law saith that such shall be stoned, but what sayest 
thou ?" Here was a dilemma. If he said, Let the law 
have its course, his gospel of mercy was flung to the winds. 
If he said, Let her go scot free, he would lay himself open 
to the charge of heresy against the Jewish law. There 
she lay, poor guilty thing, her hair dishevelled, her gar- 
ments torn, cowering and hiding her crimson face in her 
hands. There they stood, arrogant churchmen, silently 
awaiting his word. He stooped and wrote upon the dust 
of the pavement. It was his only written sermon. They 
followed his finger as it traced the w r ords, " Let him that 
is without sin cast the first stone at her." And one by 
one those gray-bearded priests and rabbis, conscience- 
stricken, turned and crept away ; so that when Jesus arose 
and looked about him, lo, they all were gone, and he was 
alone with his little congregation and the sinful woman in 
their midst. By this time, as we venture to surmise, the 
twilight was lifting and the day began to break. The sun 
slowly appeared above the eastern crags of Gilead, and 
far towards the west the sky threw back a golden glow. 
It was perhaps at this moment that Jesus said, " I am the 
light of the world ; he that followeth me shall not walk 
in darkness, but shall have the light of life." 

We mark here certain notable points of similitude be- 
tween the natural sun and Christ as the luminary of the 
spiritual world. 

I. The Sun is the great revealer. At its rising the 



I/O SUNRISE. 

darkness was withdrawn like a folded curtain. The mists 
rose from the Tyropoeon Valley and in tortuous wreaths 
and columns vanished out of sight. The shadows from 
under the brows of the overhanging crags came forth and 
pursued each other, like silent spectres, across the hills. 
The smoke rose in dense masses from the heaps of sacri- 
ficial offal burning in the ravine of Hinnom. The beasts 
gat them away together and hid themselves in dens ; and 
the earth everywhere, like an opened scroll, was disclosed 
to view. 

Thus Christ unveils the soul. It was because he 
threw a white light into the hearts of those proud Phari- 
sees that they silently betook themselves out of his sight. 
The old priest, Simeon, who held the infant Jesus in his 
arms and sang, " Now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace/' prophesied that this child would be " a light unto 
the people," and that by him " the thoughts of many hearts 
should be revealed. ,, He brings us into the solitude where, 
as in some gallery of horrors, we look about us and be- 
hold our sins : our envyings and jealousies, avarice and 
sordidness and utter selfishness, our offences against our 
fellow-men and our disloyalties towards God ; they stand 
out before us as vividly as the handwriting on Belshaz- 
zar's palace wall. Thus he is a discloser of the secret 
thoughts and imaginations of the heart. 

And in this he is an offence to the natural heart. It is 
scarcely to be expected that we should like the expos£. It 
is written, " This is the condemnation, that light is come 
into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds are evil." Sin ever seeks the cover of 
the night. In the reign of Charles II. a man named 
Heming received a contract for lighting the streets of 
London with lamps hung at every tenth door on all moon- 
less nights from Michaelmas to Lady's Day. Macaulay 



SUNRISE. 171 

says that Heming's lanterns wrought more effectively than 
any revolution in the interest of public morality. 

The hardest of prayers to offer is that of David, 
11 Search me, O God, and know my heart ; try me and 
know my thoughts. " None but a man of moral courage 
can offer it. Some go so far as to wish, 

"Oh wad some power the giftie gie us 
To see oursels as ithers see us ;" 

but the mere thought of gazing upon our corrupt natures 
with the clear eyes, not of "ithers," but of God, may justly 
overwhelm us. 

II. The Sun is the great extinguisher. That morning 
the moon grew dim at his coming, the stars shone more 
and more faintly, until the last lingering spark of heaven 
faded from view. In the porch of the temple was the 
great candelabrum, reputed to be fifty cubits high, mag- 
nificently adorned with sparkling stones and surmounted 
with lamps that cast their glow throughout the city. At 
the rising of the sun these lights grew dim and cast a 
shadow on the temple floor. 

" Night's candles were burned out, and jocund Day 
Stood tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops. " 

In like manner all lesser lights are quenched in the 
glory of the Sun of Righteousness. The moralist walks 
proudly in the feeble glow of his personal merit until 
Christ comes his way, and then he sees himself unworthy. 
Lo, all his righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The form- 
alist wearing his broad phylacteries walks erect in the 
glow of the altar-candles until Christ comes his way, and 
then he sees himself as a Laodicean impostor, " wretched 
and miserable and poor and blind and naked." No 
earthly light can live in the shining of His face. 

Here is the reason why all false religions and philoso- 



172 SUNRISE. 

phies have died or are smitten with death. Where are 
the gods of the Pantheon, great Jupiter with his hand full 
of thunder-bolts ; Thor, smiting with his hammer the gates 
of Jotunheim; Ammon, crowned with the solar disk? All 
gone, and none so poor to do them reverence. Where 
are the schools of philosophy that stood by the banks of 
the Ilissus? Who follows Plato now, or Zeno or Epicu- 
rus ? Their names are but a suggestion of shadows flee- 
ing before the sun. But the gospel of Jesus shines with 
ever-increasing splendor, shines brighter and brighter 
unto the perfect day. 

III. The Sun is the great beaittifier. It was a scene 
of wonder that spread before the eyes of those who were 
gathered in the temple porch that morning. In the valley 
of the Kedron lay dewy pastures and oliveyards. On 
the slopes of the surrounding hills were purple vineyards, 
with here and there the tents of devout pilgrims gleaming 
in the sun. Far to the north were snow-capped moun- 
tains, and away to the west the mists rising from the Med- 
iterranean, and over all the blue firmament that ever 
showeth the handiwork of God. 

So Christ brings out the best and noblest in human 
life and character. He transforms the sinner into a 
saint. There was Jerry McAuley, the river thief, whose 
life was in a round of sordid and vicious pleasures. Christ 
came to him and the sun rose upon the darkness. He 
was a new man in Christ Jesus. Old things were passed 
away and all things became new. The things that he had 
loved, he hated now. New hopes and aspirations and 
purposes came to him. He found his delight in doing 
for others and in serving the Lord. I was in Jerry 
McAuley's mission a little while ago and heard a woman's 
testimony to the gracious influence of his memory. She 
had been a woman of the town. " But now," she said. 






SUNRISE. 173 

while tears ran down her cheeks, " oh I love every board 
in this floor, I love every nail in these walls ; for here I 
found the Saviour. Whether my heart is changed I 
scarcely know, but there is a change somewhere. All 
things seem transformed. I do believe that now I love 
the things which are pure and lovely and of good report." 
Such is the influence of the gospel of Christ. It touches 
the melancholy heart and fills it with gladness. It culti- 
vates the graces; faith, hope, and charity burst into 
bloom like flowers in a garden open to the east. The 
trees of the field seem clapping their hands for joy. In- 
stead of the thorn comes up the fir-tree and instead of 
the brier comes up the myrtle-tree. The wilderness and 
the solitary place are glad because of Him. Christ's 
coming into a human life is like the morning of the first 
creative day. 

" God said, ' Let there be light !' 
Grim darkness felt his might and fled away. 
Then startled seas and mountains cold 
Shone forth, all bright with blue and gold, 
And cried, ' 'T is day ! 'T is day !' " 

IV. The Sun is the great quickener and invtgorater. 
When Jesus walked from Bethany, in the early dusk, all 
was so silent that the fox startled from the roadside made 
itself heard; and as He climbed the marble steps of the 
temple his solitary footfall echoed among the great 
arches. But as the morning drew nigh the world gave 
tokens of life. The smoke rose curling above the homes 
of the city. The people issued from their doors and could 
be seen greeting each other in the narrow streets. Down 
by the gates there were signs of chaffering ; the booths 
were open, the hum of traffic had commenced ; the city 
was awake. So the soul bestirs itself at the word of the 
Master, and life that had been passed in dreams and vis- 



174 SUNRISE. 

ions is henceforth real and earnest. "I am come that 
you might have life," said he, " and that you might have 
it more abundantly." 

The forces of the material world have their source and 
centre in the sun. George Stephenson, seeing a railway 
train in motion, said to his friend Dr. Buckland, "Tell 
me, what drives it?" " One of your great engines," was 
the answer. " But what drives the engine ?" " Steam." 
" Ay, but what drives the steam?" " The sun," said Dr. 
Buckland; "the light that was absorbed by the decaying 
life of the carboniferous age, stored away for centuries 
upon centuries, is now liberated and set at work." 

So do the moral forces find their centre in Jesus Christ. 
He walked but for a little while on earth, a brief ministry 
of thirty years, and went his way. But he still lives among 
us. His life and character furnish the world's spiritual 
energy. He dwells among us, a living, loving, striving, 
helpful, glorious Christ. 

"We may not climb the heavenly steeps 

To bring the Lord Christ down ; 
We may not search the lowest deeps, 

For him no depths can drown ; 
But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 

A present help is he ; 
For faith has still its Olivet 

And love its Galilee. 
The healing of his seamless dress 

Is by our beds of pain ; 
We touch him in life's throng and press 

And we are whole again. " 

Is there one in this company who has grown cold- 
hearted — one who espoused Him long ago but has neg- 
lected duty and forgotten the pleasant paths ? What 
is needed ? Only to let the sun shine in. When Alexan- 
der the Great visited Diogenes he asked, u Is there any- 



SUNRISE. 175 

thing I can do for you?" It was in his power to give 
crowns and fortunes ; but the old cynic had no desire for 
them. " Nothing," he answered, " but to stand out of my 
light." And indeed in our Christian life this is the su- 
preme need, to have everything put away from between 
us and the shining face of our Lord. There is nothing so 
full of healing as a sun-bath. One thing only can separate 
between us and our Lord ; that is sin. A single thread 
of a spider's weaving, if it lie across the glass of a telescope, 
may hide from view the brightest star in the firmament. 
So is it with a sinful habit ; it hides the Sun. Therefore let 
us put away the sin that doth so easily beset us and bask 
in the shining of his face. 

Is there one who has not received Him ? Oh there 
is a sweet delight in store for you ! Come out of the 
dusk and twilight ; come into the morning ! In the po- 
lar regions where the sun is below the horizon six months 
of the year, the return of the springtime is heralded with 
great joy. The people, weary of the gloom and loneli- 
ness, betake themselves to the mountain -tops and watch 
for the first appearing of the light ; and when, at last, they 
behold the flush upon the forehead of the king of day, they 
cry aloud, " O beautiful sun ! O beautiful sun !" There is 
a like pleasure for all who will suffer the heavenly grace 
to shine upon them. And this is your privilege now. It 
is for you to say whether or no the day shall break and 
the shadows flee away. 

My last word is the benediction of the morning: "The 
Lord bless you and keep you ; the Lord make his face 
to shine upon you and be gracious unto you ; the Lord 
lift up upon you the light of his countenance and give you 
peace." Amen. 



1 76 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

THE 

BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 



"And the men see not the bright light in the cloud." Job 37:21. 

The book of Job is a dramatic poem. The central 
figure is an Arab sheikh who dwelt in the land of Uz. He 
was possessed of enormous wealth for those days : seven 
thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke 
of oxen, five hundred she asses, and " a very great house- 
hold " or retinue. The guards at his door were able to 
defend him against all but adversity. His home was a 
happy one. He had a lovely wife — despite all that has 
been said against her — and seven sons and three daugh- 
ters. He was in possession, also, of perfect physical 
health, a blessing which no man thoroughly appreciates 
until he has lost it. And, best of all, Job was an upright 
man, who feared God and eschewed evil. 

The next of the dramatis persona is Satan. He is 
represented as appearing at heaven's gate, where the 
Lord greets him, " Whence comest thou ?" and he an- 
swers, " From going to and fro in the earth and from 
walking up and down in it." No rest for his feet ; no rest 
so long as there is one righteous man to be tempted, so 
long as there is a possibility of dragging one more into 
evil. And Satan said, " Doth Job fear God for naught ? 
Is his piety disinterested ? Nay, nay. Thou hast put a 
hedge about him so that he cannot be tried — a hedge 
about his house and about his cattle and his flocks ; but 
let me touch what he hath and he will curse thee !" And 



THE BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 1 77 

the Lord gave Satan power to tempt him. The same 
happens in the case of every man. No character is per- 
fected without trial. Blessed is he that endureth tempta- 
tion, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of 
life. Our Lord himself was led out into the wilderness to 
be tempted of the devil. The servant is not greater than 
his Lord. 

Then came the succession of trials. To begin with, 
poverty. In a sudden foray all Job's property was lost ; 
he was left penniless. But the malignant purpose of the 
tempter was thwarted, for in his calamity he said, " The 
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be 
the name of the Lord." 

Then bereavement. A messenger came announcing 
that his children had been swept away in sudden death. 
All gone ! In the morning he had parted with them at 
the door, wishing them a happy day ; now the poor com- 
fort was left him of holding their lifeless hands and 
smoothing the damp hair from their cold foreheads. The 
tempter stood by to hear him curse this evil providence ; 
but he said again, " Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

Then sickness. A painful and loathsome form of lep- 
rosy was laid upon him, and he took him a potsherd to 
scrape himself withal and sat down among the ashes. It 
was then that his wife said, " Curse God and die." Not 
that she was a shrew ; her heart was broken under these 
repeated troubles. Poor soul, it was little wonder that 
her patience gave out. But he said unto her, " What, 
shall we receive good and not evil at the hands of God ? 
Blessed be his name !" 

Next among the dramatis personcz are the comforters, 
Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar, old friends and neighbors. 
And they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, so 
greatly was he changed ; and they rent their mantles and 

Gospel of Gladness. 12 



178 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

sprinkled dust upon their heads. For a while they sat 
down with him upon the ground in silence, and when at 
last they spoke it was to present a wrong view of prov- 
idence. Miserable comforters were they all. Their 
thought was that God deals out adversity in strict requital, 
quid pro quo, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, each 
sin finding its own punishment in this present life. If 
therefore Job had not been a great sinner these calamities 
could never have befallen him. Little wonder that he re- 
sented this false philosophy. It is a false philosophy. 
St. Augustine wisely said that if no sin were punished in 
this present time we would believe in no providence, but 
if every sin were punished here we would believe in no 
judgment hereafter. 

Then Elihu arose; he had modestly waited for the 
others because they were his elders. His conception of 
providence was the true one. God disciplines his chil- 
dren through suffering; he makes all things work to- 
gether for the good of those who love him. No chas- 
tening for the present seemeth to be joyous but rather 
grievous : nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised 
thereby. Elihu despairs, however, of commending this 
view of providence and expresses a fervent desire that 
God would appear and make himself known. 

Then God appears, the last of the dramatis personce. 
He comes in the whirlwind; and out of the cloud, sweep- 
ing through the heavens, he proclaims his majesty : 
11 Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of 
thee and answer thou me !" 

The cloud is God's pavilion. It is the appropriate 
medium through which the Infinite reveals himself to 
man. In the nature of the case it is not possible to have 
a revelation without a corresponding adumbration of Him. 



THE BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 179 

He is like the natural sun, which cannot be seen without a 
dimness intervening between it and the naked eye. 

At Sinai God appeared in a cloud. He led his chil- 
dren through the wilderness in the pillar of cloud and 
fire which was called "The Glory of the Lord." At 
the dedication of Solomon's temple he manifested his 
presence in a luminous cloud that came forth from the 
Holiest of All and filled the house " so that the priests 
were not able to minister by reason of it." The birth of 
Jesus was announced to the shepherds from the heavens ; 
as it is written, " The Glory of the Lord shone round 
about them." On the Mount of Transfiguration, where 
the Redeemer showed his Godhood for an instant to his 
disciples, " they feared as they entered into the cloud." At 
his ascension a cloud received him out of the sight of his 
disciples ; and he shall so come as they saw him go, in 
the clouds of heaven and the holy angels with him. 

This is God's way of revealing himself: he must needs 
obscure his glory in manifesting it. The complaint of 
Elihu is that men behold the cloud but not the bright 
light within it. 

I. As to God's Personality. No man hath seen him 
at any time. Canst thou by searching find him out ? To 
know him is the summit of human aspiration. This is 
life eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ who is the 
manifestation of God. 

It is an easy matter to utter His name ; but who can 
apprehend the tremendous truth suggested in that little 
word of three letters ! Infinitude is embraced in it. When 
Simonides was intrusted by King Hiero with the duty of 
defining God, he returned at the close of the day to ask 
for further time. A week, a month, a year passed by, and 
then he reported, " The more I think of him the more he 
is unknown to me." There have been campaigns of con- 



180 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

troversy, centuries of research, libraries of theology, and 
still here we are asking, What is God ? The cloud be- 
wilders us. 

But one thing we know: God is love. This is the 
bright light. Whatever else we fail to grasp, this we may 
fully apprehend. If Jesus Christ had done no more, as 
Madame de Gasparin said, than to reveal the divine Fa- 
therhood, that would have compensated for his incarna- 
tion. He taught us to say, " Our Father which art in 
heaven." We are received, not by the spirit of bondage 
again to fear, but by the spirit of adoption whereby we 
cry, Abba, Father! 

II. As to God's Character. His attributes of truth, 
justice, holiness are the habitation of his throne. In the 
year that King Uzziah died the prophet saw Him " high 
and lifted up upon his throne, and his train filled the tem- 
ple. Above it stood the seraphim, each of them having 
six wings ; with twain he covered his face, and with twain 
he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one 
cried to another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 
Then he said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am 
a man of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the King!" 
The thought of the divine holiness appalls us, for we are 
defiled and by our sins infinitely separated from him. 

But, again, love is the bright light. The Cross stands 
in the midst of the divine holiness. The cross is pre- 
eminently the manifestation of the divine love. At the 
moment when Jesus died the veil of the temple was rent 
in twain, and a new and living way was opened up for 
sinners into the Holiest of All. " Procul, procul este y pro- 
fani!" cried the pagan priests. Depart, O sinful ones! 
But out of the cloud that envelopes the Cross of Jesus 
there proceeds a voice, " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 



THE BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. l8l 

III. As to the divine Decrees, or GocTs dealings with 
us from the eternal ages. The very suggestion offends us. 
Yet we must be aware that God would not be God if he 
had not foreknown and foreordained whatsoever cometh 
to pass. It is vain, however, to undertake to simplify - 
the doctrine. At the door-^pf the Puritan Church at 
Plymouth, after a long Sabbath service spent in discuss- 
ing " freewill, fixed fate, foreknowledge absolute," an old 
man stood with his staff in his hand stirring the depths of 
a stagnant pool. On being asked what he was doing, he 
said, " Searching for the eternal decrees." All the efforts 
of the Christian Church during these centuries to simplify 
the great mystery have been but a muddying of the waters. 
We fall back upon the Scriptural statement, " Whom God 
foreknew he also did predestinate ; whom he did predes- 
tinate, them he also called ; whom he called, them he also 
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." 

But here again love is the bright light. God's decrees 
are founded in his mercy. Election has never kept one 
out of heaven, but has brought an innumerable multitude 
into it. Two lads were looking at a picture of Elijah 
ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot. One of them said, 
"Wouldn't you be afraid to ride that way?" The other 
replied, " No, not if God drove." We look calmly upon 
the mystery of the divine foreordination and rest assured 
that the God of all the earth does right. We are not 
afraid. His name is Love. 

IV. As to divine Providence. Here surely clouds 
and darkness are round about him. Pain, sorrow, and 
disappointment are our common portion. We are born 
to trouble as the clouds to fly upwards. We are all bur- 
den-bearers. Why must it be? Oh the mystery of it ! 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform." 



182 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

The poet Cowper who wrote that impressive hymn had 
resolved to drown himself in the river Ouse. His burden 
was greater than he could bear. His soul was shrouded 
in melancholy ; life was not worth living. He hired a 
cabman to drive him along the country road to the river, 
three miles away. But the driver lost the way, and Cow- 
per sitting within had time to reflect. The old days came 
back to him ; the mother's face, the village church, the 
promises of God's blessed Word, they came to him with 
new significance now : "Weeping may endure for a night, 
but joy cometh in the morning;" " These light afflictions, 
which endure but for a moment, shall work for us a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ;" " I am per- 
suaded that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be 
revealed in us." Presently he leaned out of the window 
and bade the cabman carry him home, and there he wrote, 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform ; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea 
And rides upon the storm. 

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head. 

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
But trust him for his grace ; 
Behind a frowning providence 
He hides a smiling face." 

So, here again, love is the bright light. All God's 
dealings with us are illumined by the thought that he does 
not willingly afflict us. He is making all things work to- 
gether for our good. 

Not long ago in the Chinese quarter at San Francisco, 



THE BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 1 83 

under one of the theatres, I saw a child of six years with 
her mother in a narrow room with Joss-gods all around 
them. For a coin the little one sang to us. It was a 
strange place for a gush of heaven's melody. This is 
what she sang : 

"Jesus loves me^tliis I know, 
For the Bible tells me so." 

Oh that we might all carry away with us the assurance 
of our Father's love ! Christ is its supreme manifestation. 
He loves us ! He loves us ! Whatever darkness may 
gather, this is the bright light. 

" Yes, Jesus loves me ; 
Yes, Jesus loves me ; 
The Bible tells me so." 



1 84 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

CHRIST AND THE BIBLE; 

HOW THEY STAND OR FALL TOGETHER. 



" Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me, for he wrote of 
me ; but if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my 
words?" John 5:46. 

The two storm-centres in our religious history are 
Christ and the Bible. All notable controversies have 
gathered about the^e. As to Jesus, who is he? Is he 
what he claimed to be, the only-begotten Son of the Fa- 
ther, or a mere trickster and dissembler? The strife of 
centuries has turned upon this and kindred queries; for 
it has been understood all along that if Christ could be 
disposed of Christianity would go to pieces. And when 
the controversy has not been respecting Christ it has one 
way or another centred in the Bible. What is this old 
Book ? Is it what it claims to be, God-breathed, or is it 
above the ordinary only by reason of certain venerable 
associations? Are there any clear characteristics which 
lift it quite out of the category of other books? Can it 
be received with absolute confidence as an infallible rule 
of faith and practice ; or are those who so regard it no 
better than a sort of fetich-worshippers? Is it the Truth, 
or does it merely contain it? What think ye? Christ 
and the Bible, these are the two controversial centres ol 
our religion — as they ought to be — and these two are 
really and substantially one. The porch of Solomon's 
temple was upheld by two mighty brazen pillars, the 
names of which were Jachin or strength, and Boaz or 
continuance. A Jew going up to the temple, faint and 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 185 

heavy-hearted, felt his strength and confidence renewed 
by the sight of those pillars with their capitals of lily- 
work. Thus Christ and the Bible uphold our blessed re- 
ligion. While they remain it is safe. And they shall 
abide for ever; the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 

It is significant that Christ- and the Bible are each 
called the Word of God. How indeed could God reveal 
himself to men otherwise than by his Word ? He was 
know in nature, but not clearly or intimately. It would 
be difficult for a man to look so far " through nature up 
to nature's God" as to be able to say " Abba, Father!" 
He would be much more likely, standing amid the bewil- 
dering glones of the earth and overarching heavens, to 
cry aloud in desperate desire, " O God, if thou art, or 
wheresoever thou art, speak to me ! speak to me !" 

And God has spoken. His Word has come to us. 
As it is written, " In the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God and the Word was God ; and 
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Lan- 
guage is the medium of our acquaintance with each other. 
You know what sort of person I am, the trend of my 
thought and purpose, by what I am saying. Thus God's 
incarnate Word is his way of making us acquainted with 
himself. Our Lord and Saviour is, as it were, God's ar- 
ticulate Speech addressed to men. He revealed the Fa- 
ther fully. This he could do because he was himself the 
express image of the Father. In him dwelt the fulness of 
the Godhead bodily. On one occasion Philip said to 
Jesus, " Show us the Father, and it sufflceth us ;" and Je- 
sus answered, " Have I been so long time with you and 
yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He that hath seen 
me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, Show 
us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the Fa- 
ther and the Father in me ?" 



1 86 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

But this incarnate Word was not enough. God must 
speak further and otherwise if he would reveal himself to 
all mankind. For Jesus was hemmed in by a narrow en- 
vironment of time and space. His ministry lasted only 
three years, during which he traversed, to and fro, a small 
portion of an inconsiderable province in a remote corner 
of the earth. Shall the gracious offices of the only-begotten 
Son of God be confined to healing a few sick folk and 
preaching to some thousands of stiff-necked and unregen- 
erate Jews ? Nay, all nations and centuries are groaning 
and travailling for Him. The Word must traverse the 
world. The Sun of Righteousness must go forth as a 
bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoice as a strong 
man to run a race. This He does in the written Word, 
which is the reflex of himself, his universal and perpetual 
shining forth. Christ is made known through the Scrip- 
tures to all tribes and generations of the human race. 
They, therefore, rightly share with him the honor of the 
title "Word of God.' , 

The pages of Scripture, like the leaves of the tree of 
life, are " for the healing of the nations." They have flut- 
tered forth upon the four winds of heaven bearing the 
tidings of redemption to those who sit in darkness and the 
shadow of death. If Jesus Christ is to reign universally 
it is because, under the present Dispensation of the Spirit, 
the propaganda is being successfully carried on through 
the instrumentality of the written Word. We are express- 
ly told that " the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." 
Thus the Bible is the complement and counterpart of 
Christ. The incarnate and the written Word are one — 
the binomial Word of God. 

And they stand or fall together. 

We hear much in these times about a Christocentric 
religion; as if indeed it had ever been called in question 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 187 

that Christ is the only foundation, that he is first, last, 
midst, and all in all. The word Christocentric has a very- 
attractive look and a mellifluous sound ; but there is rea- 
son to fear that under certain conditions it may be made 
to serve Christ himself an ill turn. If it be used to em- 
phasize the need of a profounder regard for Christ and 
the entire Christian system, then let us cordially assent to 
it ; but if it be employed in any quarter as a cloak for re- 
jecting Christ's teaching as to Holy Writ, then may the Lord 
deliver us ! We may be sure that Christ himself would 
be the very first to repudiate a Bibleless gospel, no matter 
what sweet adjective might be attached to it. Mere pro- 
testations of loyalty to Christ must go for nothing, partic- 
ularly in a controversy like this respecting the divine 
Oracles, unless a man can prove his loyalty by an un- 
swerving and unreserved adherence to the doctrine of 
Christ. " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord ! 
Lord ! shall enter into the kingdom, but he that doeth 
the will of my Father which is in heaven. " 

" A man may cry ' Christ, Christ/ 

With no more piety than other people ; 
A daw 's not counted a religious bird 
Because it keeps a-cawing from a steeple." 

This, then, is the question which we now approach : Can 
we throw over the Bible and still retain Christ? 

I. Let us observe what the Bible has to say about 
Christ. 

To begin with, it is something more than a mere biog- 
raphy of him. To say that its purpose is to outline the 
scheme of salvation, in its narrow sense, furnishes a taking 
phrase but not a complete statement of fact. There are 
very many things in Scripture which have no direct 
bearing on the way to escape hell and reach the joys of 



[88 THE G0SPE1 OF GLADNESS, 

heaven. And whatever the Hook contains, whether theo- 
logical, ethical, 01 scientific, is true, absolutely true, Tims 
it is written, " All Scripture, given by inspiration oi clod, 
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may he 
perfect, thoroughly furnished imto every good work," 
i. c, that he may have a well rounded and symmetrical 
furnishing for life every way. 

It is true, however, that the golden thread running 
through all the Scriptures is ChristologicaL Their theme 
is Christ. This is true o( both the Law and the Proph- 
ets/ (l.) The moral Law as delivered from Sinai is a 
schoolmaster to lead sinners to Christ. The ceremonial 

Law in all its rites and symbols pointed to him. Its local 
centre was the Tabernacle, which, from the brazen altar 

at its door to the Ark oi the Covenant in the Holiest oi 

All, was everywhere typical of Christ. Its temporal cen- 
tre was the great Day of Atonement, when every occur- 
rence, from the robing of the piiest in white to the sending 
away of the scapegoat tor Azazel, was eloquent of Christ 
The same may he affirmed oi the prophets. The 
beginning of prophecy was the protevangel in Eden, 

u The seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's head." 

As years passed on and men forgot i^ool and lapsed into 
the abominations o( the heathen, Abram was called out 
oi Urofthe Chaldees, called and "chosen" to preserve 
monotheism and hand it down through the generations 
until the coming of Christ. To him was the promise 
given, " I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and 

in thee shall all the families oi the earth he hlcssed," a 

promise to which Jesus himself ascribed a distinct Messi- 
anic import. The Psalms oi Pavid are so hill of Christ 

* A common title of the Scriptures among the fews was, 
" The 1 aw and the Prophets." 



CHRIST AND THE EIBLE. 1 89 

that they furnish much of the material for our Christian 
hymn-books. Isaiah for a similar reason is called " the 
evangelical prophet." He foretells Christ as a child, a 
teacher, a wonderworker, a man of sorrows, a vicarious 
sacrifice, dying, triumphing over death, and evermore liv- 
ing as the Mediator and Advocate of penitent souls. Dan- 
iel saw the great world-powers rising and flourishing and 
passing away to make room for the universal dominion of 
the Son of Man. The last of the prophets, Malachi, in 
the gathering gloom of that Egyptian darkness of four 
hundred years which intervened between the two Econ- 
omies, waved his torch, crying, " The night cometh, but 
be of good courage, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise 
with healing in his wings !" Thus Christ is everywhere 
in Law and Prophecy like the theme of an oratorio ; so 
that it would be obviously impossible to keep the Bible 
and let Christ go. 

II. What, now> has Christ to say about the Bible ? 
He was familiar with it. He learned it mernoriter when a 
lad, and received it as his " infallible rule of faith and prac- 
tice " — so received it without any twisting of language or 
qualification or mental reservation. In each of his three 
temptations in the wilderness he used it as an effective foil 
against the adversary. When urged to change the stones 
into bread to satisfy his hunger he answered, " Nay, I can- 
not ! For I remember what my dear mother taught me 
out of the Book, ' Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.' " 
And when urged to cast himself down from a pinnacle of 
the temple, thus showing his Godhood by his superiority 
to natural laws, he answered again, " Nay, I cannot ! For 
I remember what my Bible says, ' Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God.' " And when urged finally to avoid the 
agony of the cross and accept the world's sovereignty in 



190 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

return for a single act of homage rendered to its de facto 
prince, he answered again, " I cannot ! For the Book 
says, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve.' " Thus in every case the Bible was 
his stand-by. " It is written " was enough for him. And 
blessed is every one of his followers who can defend him- 
self in like manner with the sword of the Spirit. 

(1.) But now to be more specific: Christ declares the 
Scriptures to be true. He does not scruple to call them 
" truth." He does not say that they contain, but that they 
are, the word of God. Thus in his sacerdotal prayer in 
behalf of his disciples he pleads, " Sanctify them by thy 
truth ; thy word is truth." A follower of Christ ought to 
be willing to follow him in his indorsement of the Scrip- 
tures no less than in faithful service. He affixed his seal 
to the story of the Deluge, saying, "As it was in the days 
of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be: they 
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
riage, and the flood came and swept them all away." He 
believed in the old story of the destruction of the Cities of 
the Plain by fire and brimstone from heaven, in the heal- 
ing efficacy of the brazen serpent, in the turning of Lot's 
wife into a pillar of salt, and in Jonah in the whale's belly. 
Hegave an explicit assent to those Old Testament " fa- 
bles " which are so abhorrent to many of the learned crit- 
ics of these days. He was probably as well advised as 
most of our Biblical exegetes respecting the real facts 
bearing upon the question of inerrancy, and knowing all 
he did not hesitate to indorse the entire trustworthiness of 
the most vulnerable portions of Holy Writ. 

And then observe his eloquent silence respecting all 
those alleged errors and discrepancies which so vex the 
souls of certain of our learned folk. Did he know that 
these blunders were to be found in the sacred pages? 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 191 

How is it that he uttered no word against the Mosaic cos- 
mogony ? How is it that he did not denounce those im- 
precatory Psalms which are too horrible to be read in some 
of our modern pulpits ? How is it that he did not expose 
the falsity of those prophecies concerning himself which 
have never been fulfilled and never can be because their 
time has gone by? Surely it is not too much to suppose 
that Jesus was an honest man. He seems to have been a 
fervent hater of shams and impostures, lying frontlets and 
phylacteries, false traditions of the elders, and deceptions 
of every sort. Is it possible that his eyes were not so 
clear in this particular as those of our recent Biblical 
scholars ? Or was his soul not so sensitive with regard to 
those dreadful things in Scripture ? We are in a dilem- 
ma. Was he unscrupulous or merely ignorant? Must 
we put the most severe limitations upon his knowledge, 
assuming that he knew no better than to let these errors 
pass unchallenged, or must we impugn his ingenuousness ? 
In either case we could scarcely receive him as our Sa- 
viour and spiritual Guide. 

(2.) Let us further mark how Christ adventures his 
entire work on the verification of Scripture. At the very 
outset of his ministry he went into the synagogue at Naz- 
areth and opened the scroll at the place where it is writ- 
ten, " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because he 
hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, 
to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
captives and the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and 
the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that 
mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy 
for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heav- 
iness ;" and having read this passage, he said to his audi- 
ence, " This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." 



IQ2 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

During the three years that followed he hypothecated the 
truth of his teaching and the genuineness of his work in 
all particulars on the sanction of Holy Writ. And after 
his resurrection, while walking with certain of his disci- 
ples along the way to Emmaus, he began with Moses 
and opened the whole Scriptures concerning himself. It 
would be interesting to know the substance of that expos- 
itory sermon. We may be quite sure that he unfolded 
the meaning of ancient rites and symbols as well as of 
Messianic prediction in the light of the things which had 
recently happened at Jerusalem. We may be equally 
sure that he carefully avoided any suggestion of the fact 
which has recently been discovered, that " the great body 
of the Messianic prediction has not only never been ful- 
filled, but cannot now be fulfilled, for the reason that its 
own time has passed for ever." What he did say seems 
to have been of directly contrary import. It was directly 
in line with his previous utterance, " Not one jot or tittle 
shall pass away until all be fulfilled." Thus Christ plant- 
ed himself on the absolute truth of Scripture and adven- 
tured his whole ministry upon it; and what was good 
enough for our Lord and Master ought to be sufficient tal- 
us. He stood as a constant witness to their unqualified 
truth, ever turning to them as a Court of Last Appeal in 
verification of his divine nature and mediatorial work, 
saying, " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye 
have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." 

III. I do not see, therefore, how it is possible to de- 
tach the Written from the Incarnate Word. They must 
stand or fall together. Christ is interwoven with the very 
fibres of the Book, and it is everywhere loyal to him. 
They are both revelations of the same God. 

Attention is here called to a striking parallel in the 
following particulars : 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 1 93 

First : Christ and the Scriptures are both alike called 
The Truth and The Word of God. 

Second: They are both theanthropic : that is, the di- 
vine and human are inextricably blended in their fabric. 
Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the 
Virgin Mary; but in partaking-of his mother's humanity 
he in no wise inherited her sin. In like manner the Holy 
Ghost wrought upon certain men to produce the Scrip- 
tures ; as it is written, " Holy men spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost ;" and in this case also the pro- 
duct was free from human imperfection. No doubt the 
features of Jesus bore a distinct likeness to those of his 
mother ; just as the pages of Holy Writ are marked by 
the mental characteristics of their human penmen ; but in 
neither case does this resemblance prevent that absolute 
faultlessness or inerrancy which belongs to any word of 
God. 

Third: It is only in the original that either the Incar- 
nate or Written Word can be called " inerrant." With 
respect to the Scriptures the Higher Critics are accus- 
tomed to say, " What is the use of affirming inerrancy of 
an ' original autograph ' which is not in existence ? The 
theory that there were no errors in the original text is 
sheer assumption, upon which no mind can rest with 
certainty. We must take the Scriptures as we have 
them, without reference to an hypothetical original which 
no man living has ever seen." But it is a poor rule which 
cannot be made to work both ways. No living man has 
ever seen Jesus Christ. There is no accurate portrait ol 
him in existence, certainly not if the Scriptures are errant 
Every representation of him in the life and character of 
his disciples is full of imperfections. Nevertheless we do 
believe that the original Christ, who for a brief period of 
thirty years lived among men and then vanished from 



194 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

sight, was " holy, harmless, and undefiled," just as the 
Scriptures were in the original autograph as it left the 
pens of those holy men who wrote as they were moved 
by the Spirit of God. 

Fourth: Notwithstanding the errors in transmission, 
the Word of God in both cases remains in such substan- 
tial perfection as to be effective in the accomplishment of 
its work. A special providence has kept before the eyes 
of all generations the image of an immaculate Christ. A 
special providence has, likewise, so guarded the transcrip- 
tion of the Written Word as that we may confidently 
hold it to be an infallible rule of faith and practice. Nei- 
ther the Incarnate nor the Written Word, as we have 
them, can lead a soul astray, but will infallibly direct 
"unto every good work" and lead at last to heaven's 
gate. 

The Ark of the Covenant, which was the centre of the 
cultus of the old economy, was a complex type of the 
Written and Incarnate Word. In it were the tables of 
the Law which were the nucleus of the Scriptures or 
" Book of the Law." Over it was the Shechinah, the 
luminous cloud in which Christ as " the Angel of the 
Covenant" was wont to manifest his presence. It was 
understood that the welfare of Israel was involved in the 
destinies of that Ark of the Covenant. It was carried 
eventually into the battle at Ebenezer as a forlorn hope. 
The old priest Eli sat by the gate awaiting the result. 
" And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army with 
his clothes rent and with earth upon his head ; and when 
he came, lo, Eli sat by the wayside watching, for his 
heart trembled for the Ark of God. And he said, What 
is there done, my son ? And the messenger answered, 
Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath also 
been a great slaughter among the people, and thy two 



CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. 195 

sons Hophni and Phinehas are dead, and the Ark of God 
is taken / And it came to pass when he made mention 
of the Ark of God that Eli fell from off the seat back- 
ward and died." Woe worth the day when Christ and the 
Bible shall lose their place in the forefront of the Christian 
Church ! But it shall not be^ The veracity of the living 
God stands pledged to the perpetuity of his Word. All 
flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of 
grass ; the grass withereth and the flower thereof passeth 
away, but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. The 
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 



I96 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

. THE 

FAITH OF AN INFIDEL. 



"Hast thou faith ?" Romans 14:22. 

Faith is reliance on evidence as to things not lying 
within the province of the senses. Observe, it is reliance 
on evidence, not taking things on hearsay. St. Paul says, 
" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
of things not seen ;" or, as given in the new version, " The 
assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not 
seen." 

The province of faith is the entire universe of the un- 
seen. Our belief in all abstract truths is founded on faith. 
Our position as to all the great problems that take hold 
on eternity is conditioned on faith. How small and nar- 
rowly circumscribed is the province of the senses. I look 
about me from the highest mountain-top and fifty miles 
away on every side terminates the visible world, while 
25,000 miles farther every way lie hills and valleys and 
oceans that I apprehend solely by faith. 

It is the universal faculty. We live, move, and have 
our being by it. In the morning we rise and go forth, 
like Abraham when he looked westward from the bank of 
the Euphrates, into a country that we know not. No man 
has ever been there ; none has ever returned to tell about 
it. Yet we go untrembling to meet its duties and respon- 
sibilities. All through the day we walk among innumer- 
able dangers ; but we are not afraid, because we have an 
assurance of divine protection. And at night we lay our- 



THE FAITH OF AN INFIDEL. 197 

selves upon our beds and venture forth fearlessly into an- 
other terra incognita, the world of darkness. Thus we 
live continually by faith, by a fearless reliance on things 
not within the province of the senses. 

A step further. Unbelief and belief are alike founded 
on faith. In other words, Belief and unbelief differ only 
in leading to opposite conclusions. I say I believe in the 
story of ancient Troy ; you say you disbelieve it, i. e., 
you believe the story to be a fabrication. I say I believe 
in civil service reform ; you say you do not, i. e., you be- 
lieve in the maxim, " To the victor belong the spoils." 
Moreover unbelief is frequently associated with an almost 
incredible credulity. The infidel, in his eagerness to cast 
off the old wives' fables of religion, finds himself accepting 
without a murmur no end of preposterous averments : 
like that Scotch mother whose son returned from a sea 
voyage and told her among other things how he and his 
comrades had found on the shore of the Red Sea a golden 
wheel from one of the chariots in Pharaoh's army, and 
how, as they sailed along, they saw fish flying through 
the air. " Sandie, Sandie," she exclaimed, " I can believe 
what ye tell o' the chariot- wheel, but ye maunna be de- 
ceivin' your auld mither wi' tales o' flyin' fish !" 

Here is our proposition : It requires more faith to re- 
ject the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion 
than to accept them. 

First. Let us take the doctrine of God. We believe 
in a God who created all things out of nothing, and that 
he upholds them by the word of his power. You do not. 
Let us see then what is the substance and measure of 
your faith in this particular. 

(1.) You must believe in effects without causes, and in 
doing so you set yourself squarely against the experience 
and observation of the ages. An effect without a cause 



198 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

was never seen. Not a grain of sand can be shown to 
have come into existence of itself. No life was ever self- 
produced. All attempts to discover a case of spontaneous 
generation, from the ancient scientists through Haeckel to 
this day, have been utterly vain. If but a single fungus, 
or one animalcule, could be shown in evidence, you might 
have some ground for your belief; but as matters stand 
you are believing without any evidence whatever. You 
are rejecting the cardinal axiom, " Out of nothing nothing 
comes," and we cannot follow you. 

(2.) Moreover, to reject God, you must believe in de- 
sign without a designer. And here again the like cannot 
be shown. All things in the world around us appear to 
be fitted to their places in the universal order and adjust- 
ed to their uses : the eye for seeing, the ear for hearing, 
the eagle's wing for piercing the air, the throat of the 
nightingale for melody. You call this a mere happening ? 
If a geographical globe were standing here and I should 
say, " This miniature of the world, showing its seas and 
continents, mountains, rivers, and lakes, was never planned, 
but merely happened so," you would laugh at me; yet 
you say substantially that thing of the world itself, with 
its real continents and seas, its appropriate furnishings, 
and its myriad forms of life. 

(3.) Still further, you believe in law without a lawgiver. 
Can you discover anywhere an analogy of this? If I were 
to tell a half-witted boy that the Ordinances of the City of 
New York made themselves, he would smile and shake his 
head incredulously. Yet you believe that the laws with 
which the universe is invested, laws that keep the rolling 
orbs of heaven in their orbits so that they move on for 
centuries without jar or jostle, laws that control the forces 
of nature so that summer and winter, seed-time and har- 
vest never fail, laws that can be traced through all the 



THE FAITH OF AN INFIDEL, 199 

avenues of material existence, governing - men and beasts, 
the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea — you believe 
that these did not originate in the brain of a lawgiver, but 
made themselves ! We cannot follow you so far. Our faith 
is not equal to the demand you make upon it. 

Second. Let us take the doctrine of Immortality. We 
believe that man was created after the divine likeness, 
that God breathed His own breath into his nostrils, and 
that he will not die till God himself shall cease to 
be. We believe that this life is not the real life, but only 
the threshold whereon we stand waiting and knocking 
until the death angel shall open, saying, " Pass in and 
live for ever." You believe that death ends all. 

(1.) In order to believe that way you must reject the 
testimony of your own intuition. For we may reason as 
we will and speculate as we will, there is a spirit in man 
which starts up and in the face of all skepticism cries, " I 
shall live and not die !" The thought of the annihilation 
of the soul is pure and simple assumption ; there is not one 
jot or tittle of evidence to sustain it. When you see upon 
an untenanted house the sign, " To Let," do you leap at 
once to the conclusion that the family that formerly occu- 
pied it have all died and been buried ? I protest, there 
would be no more folly in that than in saying over the 
mortal remains of a man, " His soul has ceased to be." 

(2.) Not only so ; you must reject the testimony of all 
ages and nations. For it is a well certified fact that from 
the foundation of the world the human race has believed 
in immortality. The Egyptians mummied their dead in 
the expectation that soul and body were to be reunited in 
after days. The Greeks placed an obolus under the tongue 
of the departed to pay their ferriage across the dark river 
to the better land. The Indians bury with their chiefs the 
bow and arrows and blanket for use in the happy hunt- 



200 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ing-grounds. The Arabs tie a fleet camel beside the 
grave of their sheikh that he may be able to ride in haste 
to the blooming plains of heaven. Do you say that this 
consensus is wrong? It is the infidel against the world. 

(3.) Furthermore, in rejecting the doctrine of im- 
mortality you throw over the best results of science. 
Let me remind you of the conservation of energy. You 
cannot annihilate force; it is a constant quantity. The 
force which is expended when I raise a sledge-hammer 
and let it fall upon an anvil passes into the anvil in 
the form of molecular motion or heat. If I send a cur- 
rent of electricity along a wire to a point where the 
wire is so small that it cannot transmit the whole quantity, 
a part goes on and the remainder is — wasted ? Oh no ; 
changed into its equivalent of another force ; and this is 
the rationale ol the Edison electric light. No energy is 
lost. But the most powerful mechanism in all the universe 
is the soul of man. What do you propose to do with 
that ? Annihilate it ? You believe that the physical ener- 
gies of John Milton were indestructible, that the muscle of 
his right arm was immortal ; but his soul, the soul that 
soared aloft to kindle its undazzled eyes at the full midday 
beam, that moved the world to wonder and admiration, 
that touched and moulded the social and political institu- 
tions of his time, was quenched like the flame of a candle, 
that it absolutely and for ever ceased to be ? To what 
lengths of credulity is your philosophy leading you ! O 
infidel, great is thy faith ! 

Third. Let us look at another of the fundamental doc- 
trines of our religion, the Incarnation. We believe that 
in fulness of time God sent forth his only-begotten Son 
upon a divine crusade for the deliverance of ruined men. 
In order to 'the accomplishment of his beneficent purpose 
this Son was clothed in flesh ; he was both God and man 



THE FAITH OF AN INFIDEL. 201 

in one person. We admit the mystery. " Great is the 
mystery of godliness; God manifest in flesh, the angels 
desire to look into it !" Nevertheless it requires a less 
strain upon the faculty of faith to receive than to reject it. 
We are in the presence of a problem which all thoughtful 
men must somehow solve. ^What think ye of Christ ?" 
is the question. There are difficulties in the way of form- 
ing any opinion whatever concerning him ; yet an opinion 
we must have. As Dr. Samuel Johnson said in another 
case, "A man must believe in either a plenum or a vacuum; 
it is hard to accept either ; yet unless I wish to be re- 
garded as a fool, I must have an opinion." So in respect 
to Christ, the necessity of a decision is upon us. What 
think ye of him ? He must have been either God, or man, 
or both God and man. 

(i.) Was he God only? So the Docetists held. 
They said his humanity was spectral. He was God seem- 
ing to be man, a divine Ghost walking the earth. But 
that opinion is not worth considering. It died and was 
buried long centuries ago. 

(2.) Was he man only? If so he must have been 
either a good man or a bad one. You cannot believe 
that he was simply a good man. He claimed to be more. 
He spoke of himself as incarnate God. He said, " I and 
my Father are one." He bade the people believe that he 
had all power given him in heaven and on earth. He arro- 
gated to himself every one of the divine attributes. He 
allowed himself to be worshipped. Peter said, "Thou 
art the son of the living God," and Thomas cried, " My 
Lord and my God !" and he did not reprove them. He 
was accused of making himself equal with God and made 
no retraction. He was finally crucified " for making him- 
self equal with God." And you call him a good man ! 
He was either what he claimed to be or else he was an 



202 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

arrant and shameless impostor, who was justly sentenced 
to die on the accursed tree. Yet it is equally difficult to 
believe him a bad man ; for none could lay anything to his 
charge. No guile was found in his lips. He lived so 
uprightly that his betrayer was forced to say, " I have 
betrayed innocent blood !" his Roman judge, " I find no 
fault in this man," and the centurion who superintended 
his execution, " Verily, this was a righteous man." He 
spent his life in doing good, he preached the Sermon on 
the Mount, he gave to the world moral precepts that have 
been the safeguards of society and the dependence of just 
government since the beginning of the Christian era. This 
Jesus of Nazareth simply a man, and a bad one at that ! 
Oh no ; it is impossible to entertain the thought. You 
cannot believe it. 

(3.) But you must believe something about him. 
There He stands, the Problem of the ages. I see no way 
out of the dilemma except to admit that he was God-man. 
The simple logic of the doctrine is that of Anselm's : if 
he is to be a Saviour he must be man that he may suffer, 
and God that he may suffer enough to make atonement 
for all his people's sins. 

These are some of our grounds for saying that it lays 
a greater burden upon our faith to reject than to accept 
the fundamental truths of Christianity. The same course 
of reasoning might be applied to other doctrines. The 
fact is, the gospel of Jesus Christ is preeminently reason- 
able. It is a gospel of common sense. We are not asked 
to accept anything which is incredible or which cannot 
stand the most exacting test of brain and conscience and 
heart. " Prove all things," is the injunction, " hold fast 
that which is good." We are invited to confer with Je- 
hovah, face to face, concerning the great doctrine of atone- 
ment. "Come now, saith the Lord, and let us reason to- 



THE FAITH OF AN INFIDEL. 203 

gether : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
be as wool." If it be objected that the innocent cannot 
suffer for the guilty, we reply that the innocent are suffer- 
ing for the guilty all around us. We are all bearing one 
another's burdens. The very heart of sympathy is vicari- 
ous pain. To say that our Father shall not sacrifice him- 
self for us is to rule him out of the category of rational be- 
ings and to repudiate our kinship with him. The noblest 
thing possible to our human nature is self-denial; we 
should expect to find something in the divine nature cor- 
responding to it. To empty himself in our behalf is just 
what our Heavenly Father should be expected to do. To 
say that " He so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life," is to call him the 
most natural and best of fathers. So far from being un- 
reasonable, it is just like God. 

So, looking at the Christian religion from any stand- 
point whatsoever, it seems easier to accept than to reject 
it. I pray you therefore, men and women, earnest and 
thoughtful, travelling on to the eternal world, think on 
these things. It is written of the simple, " He believeth 
every word," but of the prudent, " He looketh well to his 
going." Let us look well to our going and believe only 
the truth. If the things which are preached in the name 
of the Lord Jesus seem wise and reasonable, wait no 
longer, but bow in glad assent to this glorious gospel of 
the blessed God. 



204 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

THE 

GREAT LODESTONE. 



" And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 

John 12:32. 

No living man can explain the peculiar properties of 
the native oxid of iron. It has been invested with a cu- 
rious interest from time immemorial. It was originally 
called the Magnesian stone from the place where it was 
found in Asia Minor. We call it the lodestone or- the 
magnet. In the absence of any satisfactory explanation 
of its phenomena all sorts of magical virtues were ascribed 
to it. It was supposed to heal diseases ; it was used also 
as a love philter. The alchemists and conjurers made 
much of it. But while no one could explain it, one thing 
was admitted on all hands, to wit, its power of attraction. 
Sir Isaac Newton had a lodestone in a seal-ring, weighing 
only three grains, which was capable of holding up seven 
hundred and fifty grains of iron. In the spiritual world 
the antitype or counterpart of the lodestone is Christ 
crucified. Here, also, is much of mystery. A simple 
lad can ask more questions in an hour concerning the 
great doctrines which centre in the cross than the wisest 
theologian can answer in a lifetime. But one thing is 
beyond controversy, namely, its power of attraction. Da- 
vid Hume was frank to admit that the Christian religion 
had wielded an influence among men and nations which 
passed his comprehension. Gibbon, also an unbeliever, 
made a similar admission. How the story of a crucified 



THE GREAT LODESTONE. 205 

Nazarene should have been the great enlightening and 
evangelizing influence from the beginning until now is 
indeed a mystery ; but the fact remains, and it is precisely 
what Christ announced, " I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me." 

As one approaches the harbor of Queenstown, skirting 
the southern coast of Ireland, he sees upon one of the 
highest hills a graveyard and in the midst a white cross 
towering aloft, whereon a white Christ faces the west with 
his hands outstretched, as if to say, " Look unto me, all 
ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved !" It is an apologue 
of history. This is the mighty influence which, all along 
the centuries, has been appealing to men and nations. 
Other religions have one after another been stricken with 
decay and death : but the gospel like a rising sun shines 
brighter and brighter, and the red cross banner is being 
advanced to the farthest headlands of the earth. The vis- 
ion of Isaiah is in process of fulfilment ; the ships of Tar- 
shish, rams of Nebaioth, dromedaries of Midian, doves 
flying to their windows, all mean that the mighty Lode- 
stone is doing its work. Our crucified and risen Lord is 
drawing all men unto him. 

I. One cause of the attractiveness of the Christian reli- 
gion is its preeminent reasonableness. We are not asked 
to believe anything here which does not commend itself 
to brain and conscience and heart. When Nahash the 
Ammonite came up against Jabesh-Gilead and its inhabit- 
ants proposed to capitulate, he answered, " On this con- 
dition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust 
out all your right eyes." It is a mistake to think that 
any such condition is laid upon those who approach 
the gospel of Christ. It proposes on the one hand an 
ethical system to which our nature intuitively assents. 
No one has ever been found who could successfully im- 



2C6 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

pugn the integrity of the Decalogue and the Sermon on 
the Mount. All men and nations agree that " the statutes 
of the Lord are right." On the other hand the gospel 
proposes a system of doctrines which are equally conso- 
nant with reason. It touches the great problems of the 
spiritual life in such a manner as to rationalize them all. 
In particular the doctrine of the atonement, which was 
called by Luther the " Article of a Standing or a Falling 
Church," is presented not as a mere dictum but rather as 
a pathetic appeal to thoughtful acquiescence. " This is a 
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The vicarious 
pain of our Lord and Saviour is but a following out of 
the analogy of all human sympathy. The self-sacrifice of 
Jehovah as set forth on Golgotha is merely the consum- 
mation of that self-sacrifice which is universally regarded 
as the highest point of human character. It is just what 
a thoughtful man would expect to find in God. We are, 
indeed, asked to receive the truths of the gospel by faith ; 
but faith is ever buttressed by reason. " Come now, saith 
the Lord, let us reason together ; though your sins be as 
scarlet they shall be as white as snow ; though they be 
red like crimson they shall be as wool." 

II. Moreover, the attractive power of the gospel is. 
largely due to its delightsomeness. The church of Jesus 
Christ is recruited from the multitude of young men and 
young women, such as naturally object to entering upon 
a life which has nothing of enjoyment to offer them. It 
would be vain to entice them with a melancholy gospel. 
Blessed be God, we need not ! No doubt there are some 
Christians who so profoundly realize the solemnity of life 
that they view all things through blue glasses. 

11 They wear long faces, just as if their Maker, 
The Lord of goodness, were an undertaker." 



THE GREAT LODESTONE. 207 

The truth remains, however, that the gospel is full of 
gladness. The Lord himself struck the key-note when 
he went down to the marriage at Cana and took part in 
the festivities, changing the water into wine. We invite 
the young, therefore, to set out upon the Christian life 
because it is the life of real -pleasure. To represent it 
otherwise would be to misrepresent it. Go down to the 
wharves and hear the sailors as they hoist anchor for an 
ocean voyage. They cry in unison, " Heave yo ! heave 
yo !" and there is a rhymic inspiration in the word. To 
set forth otherwise would be to cloud the voyage with an 
evil omen. In like manner we are asked to begin the 
Christian life with an assurance that despite all its duties 
and responsibilities, its self-denials and cross-bearings, it 
is full of unspeakable delight. We are servants of One at 
whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. 

Why shall not we rejoice whose sins are pardoned ? 
Our God is the God of salvation. We were in Egypt, 
but our chains are broken. No more unrequited toil in 
Pharaoh's brick-yards ! No more groaning under the 
whip of scorpions in the hand of a hard task-master ! 
The Lord our God hath brought us up out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 

" I Ve reached the land of corn and wine, 
And all its riches freely mine ; 
Here shines undimmed one blissful day, 
For all my night has passed away." 

Why shall not we rejoice who are retained in the ser- 
vice of the King of kings ? Of all earth's creatures the 
most insensate and unconcerned is the beetle. It toils on 
the dusty highway, shut up in a little world of its own 
and heedless of all momentous things transpiring around 
it. The king with pomp and circumstance may pass 



208 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

that way, but what cares Scarabaeus ? He hears not the 
rumble of the royal chariot. Armies come marching over 
the dusty thoroughfare, to death or glory, but Scarabaeus 
gives no heed. In his narrow world, blind and deaf to 
vaster things in the universe, he plods sordidly on, until 
one day a soldier's foot or the wheel of a chariot reduces 
him to his native dust. There are human lives like that — 
lives spent in the narrow round of selfish care and pleas- 
ure, heedless of those momentous issues which should 
enchain the interest of every immortal soul, blind to 
earth's sublimest possibilities and deaf to the songs of 
heaven, until death comes ; then the body returns to the 
earth as it was and the soul to God who gave it. The 
glory of the Christian life, however, is that it turns our 
attention to matters of eternal import. We have lot and 
part with God himself in the great work of the building 
up of the kingdom of righteousness on earth. Ours is 
the joy of service. We are co-laborers with God. 

III. The attractiveness of the gospel lies, furthermore, 
in its helpfulness. For life is not all a merry-go-round. 
There are tasks to be performed and crosses to be borne. 
And therein God is our helper. He does not give us our 
religion and then leave us. He gives us a religion and 
himself along with it. " Lo, I am with you alvvay, even 
unto the end." 

He is with us helpfully in our common tasks. In the 
story of the " Watchmaker of Geneva " occurs a para- 
graph like this : " The tool slipped and his work was 
spoiled. He laid it aside and repeated the attempt, and 
again unsuccessfully. A momentary expression of trou- 
ble came over his face, an impatient word escaped him. 
Then he closed his eyes, his lips moved, his trouble was 
gone, and he resumed his work." This is an experience 
common to all. We are bunglers at the best ; " the tool 



THE GREAT LODESTONE. 20g 

slips " constantly. But oh what strength is gotten from a 
moment's interview with Christ ! He is never far from 
any one of us. The closing of our eyes is like the shut- 
ting of the closet-door which leaves us alone with him. 

His help is vouchsafed also in our struggle against sin. 
Every true man is conscious^of the " war in his members," 
the conflict for mastery between his higher and lower na- 
ture. Each has his own, his darling sins, his vicious pro- 
pensities. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but 
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of 
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in 
high places. Who is sufficient for these things ? When 
David went forth to encounter Goliath his well-meaning 
friends buckled Saul's armor upon him. But the helmet 
slipped over his eyes, the mail-coat rattled upon him, and 
the sword trailed along the ground. " Loose me," he 
said, "and let me go forth in the strength which God 
shall give me." And presently he hurled his challenge 
across the valley, " Thou comest to me with sword and 
buckler, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of 
Hosts." That way lies victory. The man who meets his 
evil passions with a firm reliance on divine help is sure of 
ultimate triumph. Of myself I can do nothing ; I can do 
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

IV. Once more, the gospel attracts by reason of its 
hopefulness. We believe in life and immortality. Our 
threescore years on earth are not our lifetime, but only 
the beginning of it. We are spending our school-days 
here, preparing for eternal tasks and responsibilities. The 
true philosophy is that which pushes back the horizons 
infinitely. To spend our energies in the pursuit of things 
which perish with the using is to fall vastly short of our 
destiny. All true men are children of Abraham, who lived 
by faith. It is written that when he was called to go unto 

The Gospel of Gladness. J A 



210 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

a country which he should afterwards receive for an inher- 
itance, " he went out not knowing whither he went.' , 
Thenceforward he had no abiding-place, but lived in con- 
stant expectancy. Whether he pitched his tent by the 
banks of the Euphrates, under the oaks of Mamre, or on 
the slopes of Hebron, it was always as a wayfarer listen- 
ing for the voice that should bid him strike tent at day- 
break and move on. We too are pilgrims and sojourn- 
ers, ever looking for a better country, even a heavenly, 
and for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and 
maker is God. We live therefore not in the present, 
but in the future. Our conversation is in heaven. Our 
life is hid with Christ in God. It matters little, therefore, 
what happens so long as the outlook is fair. " Our light 
affliction is but for a moment." By way of the cross we 
journey to the crown. We climb the rough paths to the 
stars. 

These are some of the reasons why the gospel has 
attracted us and is attracting the multitudes of men. But 
however we may observe the elements of this attractive 
power, the Lodestone itself is a mystery still. The cross 
is foolishness to the Greek and to the Jew a stumbling- 
block, and thus it always will be. But to those who seek 
salvation by faith it is the wisdom and the power of God. 

At one time when Dr. Chamberlain was at Hyder- 
abad, he was advised that if he continued to preach the 
gospel it must be at the peril of his life. In the morning 
when he came, as his custom was, to the market-place, he 
found himself surrounded by an angry mob. They had 
torn up the paving-stones and stood ready to slay him. 
By an artifice he succeeded in getting them to listen to a 
story. He began with the Child in the manger, told of 
his marvellous life, how he healed the sick, opened the 
blind eyes, wiped away the lepers' spots, how he spake as 



THE GREAT LODESTONE. 211 

never man spake concerning the great truths of the eter- 
nal life, how he lived so purely that no man could lay 
anything to his charge ; he told of his calm demeanor be- 
fore his judges, and finally of the hours of mortal anguish 
on the cross. As he proceeded he saw his hearers going 
to the street and dropping the paving-stones. There 
were tears in their eyes. " This is my story," said he; 
" stone me if you will." But they were willing to listen 
now ; and from that time onward he was never hindered 
in his preaching. Oh there is a wonderful power in the 
old story of Calvary ! The marvel is that it does not 
touch all consciences and break all hearts. It has in it 
the secret of an endless life. 

If these things are so, beloved, if the religion of Christ 
is reasonable, enjoyable, helpful, and hopeful, if it glad- 
dens and saves and satisfies, surely, surely this is the 
religion for you and me. 



212 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



"THE JERICHO ROAD." 

" Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.'' 
Luke 10:37. 



The probability is that the lawyer who is here repre- 
sented as "standing up and tempting " Jesus was not ma- 
liciously inclined. He was a dialectician and desired to 
test the mettle of the Nazarene prophet. The question 
he propounded, " What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 
was a common one in the controversy of those days. 
Two answers were possible ; first. Keep the law. The 
man who obeys the law shall live by it ; but, by the same 
token, to disobey the law is to die under it. Second, 
Accept the gospel. If any man sin, we have an advocate 
with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. The 
only work of merit possible to the sinner in the sight of 
Almighty God is acceptance of the proffer of grace ; as it 
is written, " This is the work of God, that ye believe in 
him whom God hath sent." And, " He that believeth in 
the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." 

In answer to the lawyer's question the Lord directed 
his attention to the Scripture written on his frontlet and 
the phylactery : " What readest thou ?" On those leath- 
ern bands was inscribed the compendium of the law, to 
wit, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart and mind and soul and strength ; and Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said, " This do and 



"THE JERICHO ROAD." 213 

thou shalt live." But the lawyer was not satisfied. There 
was something in Christ's answer that convicted him. 
He was baffled and confused ; and wishing to justify him- 
self, he asked, " But who is my neighbor?" Then the 
Lord related this story of the Waylaid Traveller, in 
which, as you perceive, he^deftly turned the tables on his 
questioner and answered not his query Who is my neigh- 
bor ? but the vastly broader one which lies at the centre 
of all philanthropy, Whose neighbor am I? 

This is generally regarded as a parable, but without 
apparent reason. There is every indication that it is the 
relation of an actual occurrence. Had there been a daily 
newspaper in Jerusalem at that period, the incident would 
have been announced in flaming headlines, " Violence on 
the Jericho Road. A Traveller Waylaid and Robbed — 
Beaten and Left for Dead." The road from Jericho to 
Jerusalem, a distance of twenty-one miles, is still called 
" The Bloody Way." It runs down an ancient river- 
bed. The surrounding country is likened to an ocean 
congealed in some mighty tempest. There are caves, 
ravines, inaccessible cliffs, lurking-places for banditti on 
every side. Modern travellers going that way hire a spe- 
cial guard and take every possible precaution. The man 
of whom Jesus speaks foolishly set out alone and unpro- 
tected. The thing he should have expected befell him ! 

Here is an apologue of life. We need not go far to 
find the "Jericho Road." Sin is the robber chief, the Ali- 
Baba, leading on a furious band of passions and unholy 
ambitions — highwaymen all. Life runs through their 
lonely country. There is a cutpurse in every fastness. 
Oh how many are wounded and robbed ! How many 
left for dead ! — despoiled of manhood, of self-respect and 
a good conscience, maimed by their unholy passions, 
shot through the head by rationalism or through the 



214 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

breast by convivial vices. We have all heard the arrows 
whizzing past, been struck by the stones hurtling down 
upon us from the overhanging cliffs. 

What have we, as Christians, to do about it? How 
does it concern us as followers of Christ ? Much, every 
way. 

First, it behooves us to do our utmost towards the 
improvement of the Bloody Way ; to make life as safe 
as possible for the innocent and unwary. And the place 
to begin, for us, is New York city. 

A good deal is being said at this moment about the 
wickedness of New York city. Not to enter into particu- 
lars, it is safe to admit that our Metropolis is not as right- 
eous as the New Jerusalem. It requires no great stretch 
of the imagination to conjure up a better set of politicians 
than ours, or to conceive a more Utopian condition of 
things generally. At the entrance of our harbor stands 
" Liberty Enlightening the World. " If on some dark 
night she could descend from her pedestal, land at the 
Battery, and pursue her way along our streets, it is much 
to be feared that next morning we should see her facing 
this way and lifting a menacing finger. As she passed 
Wall Street she would probably cast a sidelong glance 
that way. At City Hall she would pause with a look of 
mingled surprise and indignation. She would note with 
horror the frequent red lights which mark the points 
whereat our thoroughfares open into Gehenna. Her 
soul would be stirred by the sound of rattling dice and 
loud laughter from the upper rooms along the way. If, 
under the impression that our stalwart policemen are 
guardians of the peace, she should call their attention to 
some of these lawless sights and sounds, her bewilder- 
ment would only be increased by the smiling information 
that she and not they must vindicate the law. She would 



"THE JERICHO ROAD." 21$ 

shrink with alarm from the rudeness of belated revellers 
on their devious way homeward, and would withdraw her 
garments with loathing from the touch of the woman 
" whose feet take hold on hell." The tokens of vice en- 
trenched and unmolested in splendid mansions would add 
to her dismay. At the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fif- 
tieth Street her eyes would flame at sight of a monument 
reared in commemoration of the most brazen and colos- 
sal robbery ever known in municipal affairs. It is an 
open question whether, after thus familiarizing herself 
with New York by night, she would return to her pedes- 
tal at all, or, if we found her there at daybreak, it would 
certainly be with her torch inverted or under an extin- 
guisher, as if to suggest that New York under its present 
conditions is scarcely the proper centre from which to en- 
lighten the world. 

If, however, New York is to be made a better city, it 
must come about largely through the instrumentality of 
the Church. And her ministers must lead the way. It 
should gladden the hearts of all good citizens that the 
pulpit has recently made itself heard in fearless and vig- 
orous denunciation of civil corruption. We preach a 
gospel which touches life at every point of its circumfer- 
ence. No living man can utter a caveat or say that we 
may anathematize sin up to the threshold of politics, but 
must pause there. God alone has authority over his am- 
bassadors in this matter, and his word is, "Cry aloud, 
spare not, and show the people their sin." 

But the ministers must not be left to bear the burden 
alone. That way lies failure. The responsibility of re- 
form rests upon the shoulders of every lover of truth and 
righteousness. No right-thinking man is absolved from 
the duty of this hour. " How easy it would be to reform 
the nation if every one would look to his own reforma- 



216 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

tion." There are Christians enough in New York to dis- 
lodge all organized wickedness and drive the rascals out, 
But everything depends upon united effort. Eendracht 
maakt macht. If we are to succeed it will be in the line 
of Wesley's motto, "All at it, always at it, altogether at it." 

Nevertheless, after all good people have done their 
utmost the ravages of evil will continue. The wounded 
will still need to be helped and cared for at the inn. 
This also is the business of God's people. The bitter 
cry of the lost and abandoned comes to us from every 
side. The men and women who haunt the rendezvous of 
vice and reel along our streets were once innocent chil- 
dren in their mothers' arms, boys and girls playing among 
the hollyhocks and sweet-williams in the gardens of the 
old country homes. They started for the city, under the 
rainbow arch of promise to make their fortunes. But the 
arrows have pierced them, the banditti have beaten and 
robbed them. What shall be done ? Who will be neigh- 
bor to them ? The tramps, the gamins, the outcasts, the 
drabs, the drunkards, the criminals, all immortal souls 
made in God's image, soiled, dragged in the mire, de- 
spoiled of their divine inheritance — who will succor and 
lift them up? 

The Church is a great organized benevolence. Its 
very name, ecclesia, suggests its vocation. It is called 
out of the world to uplift the fallen and to deliver the 
lost. No other association on earth has a like commis- 
sion. The State, if true to its functions, puts up lights 
along the dark windings of the Bloody Road and fur- 
nishes safeguards to the wayfarer ; but it does not reform 
the guilty, restore the fallen, or redeem the lost. This is 
the business of the Church of Jesus Christ; and only 
such as are in cordial sympathy with him in his divine 
purpose of deliverance can engage in it. 



"THE JERICHO ROAD." 217 

It is written that when this traveller fell among thieves, 
" by chance there came down a certain priest that way, who 
saw him and passed by on the other side." This priest was 
a doctrinaire. While he walked he was buried in thought. 
The groans of the poor fellow who was weltering in his 
own blood fell upon his ears-; he lifted his eyes, looked 
that way, and passed on. The suffering multitudes have 
little or nothing to hope for from cold philosophy. A 
creed is essential to an earnest life, but a truth on parch- 
ment is no better than a homoeopathic pellet before it has 
been drenched in the mother-tincture. A sword hanging 
on a nail is a vain thing ; it needs a heart behind it and a 
strong arm to wield it. Faith without works is dead; its 
feet are cold, its eyes are glassy, its heart is still, its hands 
are folded over its breast. 

And likewise a Levite came that way, looked on him, 
and passed by on the other side. He was a ceremonialist. 
It was his business to look after the pomp and circum- 
stance of worship. No doubt he was hastening to reach 
Jerusalem for an appointed service; and when he saw 
this poor fellow he said in his heart, " I am sorry, but if I 
touch him I shall be defiled. Moreover, the sun reminds 
me that I shall be late for worship." It was plain that he 
could do nothing. There is a class of high-churchmen 
who make the outward form of more importance than the 
inward life ; who exalt the church spire above the Cross. 
Such pietists are not the stuff that reformers and philan- 
thropists are made of. 

Then came the good Samaritan ; "and when he saw 
him, he had compassion on him, and bound up his wounds 
and brought him to the inn and took care of him." Here 
is the Christian. He has a creed and a form of devotion, 
but above all a heart beating responsive to his Master's 
love for the children of men. Our Lord himself was the 



218 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

universal neighbor. He came to seek and to save the 
lost. 

" He saw us plunged in deep despair 
And flew to our relief.' ' 

He touched the leper, beckoned to the crazy demoniac, 
talked with the abandoned woman of the hope of better 
things. There was healing in the hem of his garment ; 
there was comfort in the kindly glance of his eye. None 
of the great masters has been able to portray the beauty 
of his face. They have painted him with eyes uplifted in 
devotion or with hands crossed over a bleeding heart. 
Ah ! if some painter could have caught the gracious look 
upon his face while he passed through the porches of 
Bethesda, laying a gentle hand upon the suffering, speak- 
ing a helpful word to all ! 

To be a Christian is to be following in the footsteps of 
Christ. It is to go about as Peter and John did, saying 
to the troubled and helpless, " In the name of Jesus Christ 
of Nazareth, rise up and walk !" 

" He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small : 
For the dear Lord who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 

Of the multitudes of the suffering ones whom we meet, 
not one has wholly lost the semblance of manhood or the 
possibility of restoration. On the shield of the Humane 
Society of London a little girl is represented as trying to 
revive a dying fire by breathing upon it ; and above are 
the words Forsitan scintilla, " Perhaps a spark!" Oh, 
beloved, there are no lost souls on earth. None are lost 
until the great doors of the midnight world have clanged 
behind them. Let us bend over the fallen, feel their pulse, 
watch for tokens of returning life, never give them up ! 



"THE JERICHO ROAD." 219 

I call upon you all, good men and women, to join in 
the rescue. Help the next sufferer whom you meet. 
Seek opportunities of kindness. I have heard of a Chris- 
tian woman who, moved by a desire to do good, took her 
place beside the prison door, resolved to help the first who 
should issue forth. The onethat came had lost almost 
the semblance of humanity — a poor, abandoned, shame- 
stricken wretch. They confronted each other for a mo- 
ment in silence, then this woman put her hand upon her 
shoulder, looked into her face, and without a word kissed 
her poor faded cheek. Thereat she cried out, " My God ! 
don't do that! Don't do that! Nobody's done that 
since mother died !" The spark was quickened. In every 
man and woman there is left something of nobility and 
with it a remnant of hope. 

" Down in the human heart, 

Crushed by the Tempter, 
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore ; 

Touched by a loving heart, 

Wakened by kindness, 
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more." 

This is the work to which we are summoned as follow- 
ers of Christ. Let us rejoice that we are called to be saved, 
but much more that we are called to administer salvation 
to others. The word of the Master is, " Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." But he has another word of invitation which should 
touch us deeply to-day : " Arise and follow me. Join me 
in the deliverance of suffering souls. Come with me along 
the Bloody Way, to help those whom sin has waylaid, 
robbed, and left for dead !" Come, brethren, and let us 
henceforth, like Christ himself, be neighbor to every man. 



220 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



HOW 
JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH. 



r And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath 
day, that they might accuse him." Mark 3:2. 



Our Lord, driven out of Jerusalem, had come to Ca- 
pernaum, and was henceforth to make his headquarters 
there. His enemies pursued him. On this occasion 
while he preached in the synagogue there were spies 
present watching him. They saw the man with the with- 
ered hand and knew that Jesus would probably heal him ; 
and if he did so it would be a technical violation of the 
Sabbath law. He knew what was in their hearts, and he 
saith unto them, " Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath 
day or to do evil ? to save life or to kill ?" But they held 
their peace. " What man among you," he continued, u if 
lie hath a sheep fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day, will 
not lay hold upon it and lift it out? But how much bet- 
ter is a man than a sheep !" His logic was good, but the 
traditions were against him. When he healed the with- 
ered hand he gave his enemies a distinct ground for accu- 
sation, and the shadow of the cross grew darker over him. 

Christ is our exemplar in everything. We can make 
no mistake in following him. Imitatio Christi is the se- 
cret of right living. Let us also, therefore, watch him, not 
with hostile eyes like those of his Jewish pursuers, but with 



HOW JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH. 221 

the reverent purpose of shaping our conduct after his. His 
manner of Sabbath observance will furnish us with a safe 
rule for the keeping of the holy day. 

I. Observe, to begin with, he rested from secular tasks. 
His carpenter-shop was closed. It is safe to say that 
money would not have tempted him to take down his saw 
or plane unless for a work of absolute necessity. The 
most rudimental precept as to the Sabbath has reference 
to the duty of physical rest. " Six days shalt thou labor 
and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sab- 
bath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any 
work." And the sanction of the Sabbath, as here given, 
is manifestly permanent, inasmuch as it rests upon the 
divine example : " For in six days the Lord made heaven 
and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the 
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day and hallowed it." When that " for " and that " where- 
fore " shall lose their logical significance, or when it shall 
cease to be an historical fact that God rested after his six 
days of creative work, it will be time to speak about the 
abrogation of the Sabbath law. 

The necessity of devoting one-seventh of our time to 
physical rest is written not only in Holy Scripture, but in 
the human constitution. During the Reign of Terror in 
France it was ordained that every tenth day should be set 
apart for this purpose. A fine was imposed for the keep- 
ing of the Sabbath, the object being to utterly eradicate 
this with every other religious observance. It was found, 
however, that the divine law would tolerate no such in- 
fringement. One-tenth was not the right proportion. The 
nation broke down under it and was obliged to restore the 
sanctions of the Lord's day. 

It is stated that three million one hundred and forty- 
five thousand of our American people are at work every 



222 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

Sabbath; one in ten of our wage- earners ; a representa- 
tive of every sixth family in the land. A portion of this 
labor is no doubt necessary. It is safe to say, however, 
that two million of these workmen might, without percep- 
tible inconvenience in any quarter, be released from their 
unnatural bondage. Our Government is the chief sinner. 
In New York city the postal service goes on about as 
usual during the Lord's day. Hundreds of clerks and 
carriers are kept on duty. So also at Philadelphia and in 
every important city. If this be urged as a business ne- 
cessity, it is enough to answer that London, the great cen- 
tre of universal commerce, with its five millions of peo- 
ple, manages to get along without a Sunday delivery 
or collection of mails. In this matter we are needlessly 
defying God. In 1828 petitions from twenty-one States of 
the Union were sent to the Postmaster General calling for 
a cessation of the Sunday postal service. His reply was 
a complex illustration of impiety and demagogical imper- 
tinence. " So long/' said he, " as the silver river flows 
and the green grass grows and the oceanic tides rise and 
fall on the first day of the week, so long shall the mails of 
this republic be circulated on that day." It is to be hoped 
that he spoke for himself alone, for no nation could de- 
liver itself in that manner without provoking the wrath of 
a jealous God. 

The Sunday newspaper is also a great sinner. It is at 
this moment the head and front of our offending with re- 
spect to the holy day. Observe some of the points in the 
indictment. 

(1.) It is the worst paper of the week. No pretence 
is made that its columns are adjusted to the needs of 
the holy day. On the other hand, all items peculiarly 
abominable or salacious are tossed upon the desk of the 
Sunday editor. If this issue were made up of material 



HOW JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH. 223 

proper to be read on the Sabbath not a hundred copies 
could be disposed of. 

(2.) Its preparation involves a vast amount of Sabbath 
work. To throw this blame upon the Monday issue is to 
resort to a very diaphanous subterfuge, for if there were 
no Sunday newspaper the— Monday's issue could and 
would be prepared as formerly, without the necessity oi 
working on the Lord's day. 

(3.) It is training up an army of lads for Sunday work. 
To buy a paper of a newsboy seems a small matter to you. 
The average business man — not to say Christian — would 
hesitate to sell a corner lot on the Sabbath ; but he for- 
gets that to a newsboy the selling of papers is a matter 
of as much importance as the larger transaction would be 
to him. And this boy, remember, is being encouraged to 
believe that business may be properly transacted on the 
Sabbath. There are thousands of these boys in New 
York who are certain to carry that impression through life. 
And the people who patronize them are responsible for it. 

(4.) It drags the world into our Sabbath life. You 
say you must have the news. Yet the news is the very 
thing that we should most desire to escape from on the 
Lord's day. " The world is too much with us." We are 
like the starling in the " Sentimental Journey," that, beat- 
ing against its cage, cried, " I can't get out ! I can't get 
out !" God's purpose in instituting the Sabbath was to 
give our souls an opportunity of quitting the world for a 
season and resting from the worry of it. 

(5.) It keeps up traffic on the sacred day. The Sun- 
day newspaper is sustained most largely by the income 
from its advertising columns. The merchant who patron- 
izes them may delude himself with the idea that he has 
arrested his business for the Sabbath ; but he has done 
nothing of the sort. He may have turned the key in 



224 THE GOSrEL OF GLADNESS. 

the lock on Saturday night, but he has taken effective 
means of continuing his traffic another way. If he were 
to send a bell-man up and down Broadway to cry, " Hear 
ye ! hear ye ! my place of business is closed for the Sab- 
bath as becomes a Christian man, but it will be open to- 
morrow morning with such bargains as never were heard 
of!" it would be obvious that he was making a pretty 
fair thing of his Sabbath rest in a financial way. But 
this is the very thing you are doing through your ad- 
vertisements in the Sunday press. The fact is that so far 
from resting, you are doing a very vigorous and profitable 
business on the Lord's day. 

II. To return now to Christ's manner of keeping the 
Sabbath, observe that he desisted from secular amuse- 
ments. If proof be called for, we reply that it goes with- 
out proving. To suggest that he might possibly have 
gone to an amphitheatre to witness a gladiatorial show 
on the Sabbath would be in the nature of gross impiety. 
We know him too well to entertain the thought. 

The drift in our time is towards the opening of places 
of Sabbath amusement. The French people tried that 
experiment under the most favorable circumstances and 
are to-day groaning under it. The German people have 
also tried this experiment; and their Sunday beer-gar- 
dens are a weariness and an abomination. It is a poor 
time for Americans to institute the custom. The propo- 
sition is made as if in behalf of the workingmen, but this 
is mere pretence. In 1883 when a vigorous and persist- 
ent effort was made in England to open the museums and 
other places of amusement on the Sabbath, a canvass was 
made of the various labor guilds and associations with the 
following result : For Sunday opening, sixty-two organi- 
zations with a membership of 45,482. Against Sunday 
opening, two thousand four hundred and twelve organiza- 



HOW JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH. 225 

tions with a membership of 501,705. This ought to be 
conclusive as to one point, namely, that if we are to open 
our places of secular amusement on the Sabbath it is not 
for the benefit of the workingmen. Our wage-earners are 
well aware that Sunday amusements are the entering 
wedge for Sunday work, arrd that Sunday work means 
six days' wages for seven days' toil. Every place of 
amusement thrown open to the public means a relay of 
workmen to carry it on. The encroachment is gradual 
but the result is sure. Our wage-earners are familiar with 
the logic of the situation ; if the holy day is to be made 
a holiday it is not because they desire it. 

III. Our Lord attended church on the Sabbath. It 
was his custom to worship in the synagogue. The Sab- 
bath is preeminently a time for the cultivation of the spir- 
itual graces. Six days in the week we are in the midst of 
the world's work and worry. Brain and sinew are under 
the utmost tension. Matters of eternal moment go large- 
ly by default. This is preeminently true of the American 
people. Our ordinary business man is moderately sure 
of breaking down under the continuous strain. Our most 
common ailment is nervous debility. Possibly our disre- 
gard of Sabbath rest has something to do with it. God 
means that we shall quit the world one day in seven, lay 
off its cares and burdens and come up out of its mists and 
miasms to breathe the mountain air with him. Why is it 
that a sea voyage is so frequently prescribed for worn-out 
business men ? The moment the ship hoists anchor the 
world recedes. Then follows a week of substantial exile. 
No more news now. Stocks may go up or go down, 
kingdoms may rise and fall, but the voyager knows it 
not. Oh blessed rest ! The horizons of our life are 
pushed back. Our hearts are enlarged. There are 
depths above and deeps beneath. We are out of the 

'5 



226 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

world ! Every Sabbath ought to be like a sea voyage. 
It should carry us away from the hum and roar of traffic, 
from the distracting pursuits of the madding crowd, away 
from the world into the spiritual realms. This is the day 
of devotion, the day for spiritual growth and enjoyment 
in communion with God. 

IV. Our Lord devoted himself on the Sabbath to 
charitable work. Many of his most helpful miracles were 
wrought upon that day. And why not ? This is the day 
of days for mercy — to lift up the fallen, comfort the be- 
reaved, feed the hungry, visit the sick, and impart instruc- 
tion to such as are ignorant of spiritual things. If it can- 
not be said that philanthropy is worship it is certainly 
true that our Lord is pleased with kindness rendered to 
the least of his little ones. The Legend Beautiful has a 
lesson for us. To the monk kneeling in his chamber alone 

came 

" the Blessed Vision 
Of our Lord, with light Elysian 
Like a vesture wrapped about him." 

Never had the monk known such transport. He knelt in 
rapt adoration. Then, on a sudden, the convent bell 
tolled the hour of charity. The poor were waiting at the 
monastery door for their accustomed dole; and to-day 
this monk was almoner. 

" Deep distress and hesitation 
Mingled with his adoration ; 
Should he go or should he stay ? 
Should he leave the poor to wait 
Hungry at the convent gate 
Till the Vision passed away? 
Should he slight his radiant Guest, 
Slight this Visitant celestial, 
For a crowd of ragged, bestial 
Beggars at the convent gate ?" 



HOW JESUS KEPT THE SABBATH. 227 

But a voice within reminded him that God required mercy 
and not sacrifice. Reluctantly he arose from his knees 
and with a last look at the Vision went forth to duty. 
He dispensed the daily alms, received the thanks of the 
poor and suffering, and then in haste returned. On en- 
tering his cell he paused with unspeakable delight, 

"For the Vision still was standing 
As he left it there before, 
When the convent bell appalling, 
From its belfry calling, calling, 
Summoned him to feed the poor. 
Through the long hour intervening 
It had waited his return, 
And he felt his bosom burn, 
Comprehending all the meaning, 
When the Blessed Vision said, 
* Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled !' " 

Two words, in closing. First, " The Sabbath was 
made for man;" not, surely, that he might abuse it, but 
that he might apply it to his spiritual and eternal good. 
The day is a holy trust and we shall be held responsible 
for the right use of it. 

Second, " The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sab- 
bath." He has a property right in it. Time is his, for 
he made it. By a special and explicit designation the 
Sabbath is set apart as " the Lord's Day." The man 
who appropriates it to his own selfish uses is guilty of 
grand larceny indeed; for he is guilty of robbing God. 
Let us therefore use the day as not abusing it. 



228 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sab- 
bath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable ; and shalt 
honor him, not doing thine own ways nor finding thine 
own pleasure nor speaking thine own words, then shalt 
thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to 
ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with 
the heritage of Jacob thy father ; for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it." 



THE CENTURION'S STORY. 229 



THE 

CENTURION'S STORY. 



I am an old man now ; the burden of fourscore years 
is resting upon me. But the things which happened one 
April day in the year 783 A. U. C, full half a century 
ago, are still fresh in my memory. 

At that time I was stationed in the Castle of Antonia. 
On the morning of the day I mention, I was summoned 
to take charge of the execution of a culprit who had just 
been sentenced to death. Of the men in the garrison I 
selected twelve of such as were hardened to the sight of 
blood and with them I proceeded to the Prsetorium. All 
was hurry and excitement there. It being the time of 
the Jewish Passover, the city was crowded with stran- 
gers. A multitude of people was gathered and clamor- 
ing for the death of this malefactor. On our arrival 
he was brought forth. He proved to be that Prophet 
of Nazareth whose oracular wisdom and wonder-working 
power had been noised everywhere. He was a man of 
middle stature, with a face of striking beauty and benig- 
nity, eyes of mingled light and warmth, auburn hair fall- 
ing over his shoulders. He was now pale and haggard, 
having passed through three judicial ordeals since the 
last sunset, besides being scourged with the flagellum 
horribile and exposed to the rude sport of the midnight 
guard. He wore the cast-off purple of the Roman procu- 



230 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

rator and a crown of thorns. But, as he issued from the 
Hall of Judgment, such was his commanding presence 
that the multitude was hushed and separated to make 
way. The cross, constructed of transverse beams of 
sycamore, was brought and laid upon his shoulders. 
About his neck was suspended a titulum on which were 
written in three languages his name and the indictment 
against him. My quaternions fell into line, and at the 
signal the procession moved. I rode before, clearing the 
way. The people thronged the narrow streets, crying 
more and more loudly as we proceeded, " Stauroson I 
Crucify him !" 

The Nazarene, weak from long vigils and suffering, 
bowed low under his burden. A woman in the company, 
by name Veronica, it is said, pressed near and wiped the 
dust and blood from his haggard face, and the napkin 
when withdrawn] bore the impress of his face, marred but 
divinely beautiful. 

It is reported also that as the multitude surged on 
towards the Jaffa gate, a certain cobbler, named Ahasue- 
rus, moved by a malignant spirit, thrust his foot before 
the prisoner, who stumbled thereat and fell. In punish- 
ment for that cruel deed he is said to be a wanderer upon 
the earth even to this day with no rest for his weary feet. 
This too is a mere legend ; but within it dwells the truth 
that retribution ever like a Fury pursues the pitiless. 

We passed through the Jaffa gate and entered upon 
the steep road leading to the place of execution. The 
sun flamed down upon us ; we were enveloped in a cloud 
of dust. The prisoner at length, overborne by his cross, 
fell under it. We seized upon an Ethiopian in the com- 
pany and placed the burden upon him. Strange to tell, 
he assumed it without a murmur, insomuch that he was 
suspected of being a follower of the Nazarene. As we 



THE CENTURIONS STORY. 23I 

moved on with din and uproar, a group of women, 
standing by the wayside, rent the air with shrill lamenta- 
tions, on hearing which Jesus said, " Daughters of Jerusa- 
lem, weep not for me, but for yourselves and your chil- 
dren, for behold the days come when they shall say to the 
mountains, Fall on us ! andr to the hills, Cover us !" It 
was a weird prophecy, and ere a generation passed it was 
to the letter fulfilled. There were those in that company 
who lived to see the Holy City compassed about by a 
forest of hostile spears. Its inhabitants were brought low 
by famine and pestilence ; mothers cast envious eyes on 
the white flesh of their children. On the surrounding 
heights crosses were reared whereon a multitude of Jewish 
captives died the death. Despair fell upon all. And in 
those days there were not a few who called to mind the 
ominous words of the Nazarene, " Weep not for me, but 
for yourselves and for your children after you." 

The way we journeyed has since been called Via 
Dolorosa. It led to the round knoll called Golgotha — 
from its resemblance to a skull. As we drew nigh we 
perceived two crosses already reared, on which two 
thieves of Barabbas' band had been suspended for some 
hours. Our prisoner, as a token of obloquy, was to be 
crucified betw r een them. Our spears and standards were 
now lowered, and Jesus being stripped of his outer gar- 
ments was laid prostrate upon his cross. A soldier ap- 
proached with hammer and spikes, at sight of whom the 
frenzied multitude ceased for a moment their revilings 
and pressed near. The prisoner preserved his calm de- 
meanor. A stupefying draught was offered him, but he 
refused it, preferring to look death calmly in the face. He 
stretched out his hands ; the hammer fell. At sight of 
the blood the mob broke forth again, crying, " Stauro- 
son !" but not a word escaped the sufferer. As the nails 



232 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

tore through the quivering flesh his eyes closed and his 
lips moved as if he were holding communion with some 
invisible One. Then with a wrench the cross was lifted 
into the socket prepared for it. 

At this moment the first word escaped him. With a 
look of reproach and an appealing glance to heaven, he 
cried, " Father, forgive them ; they know not what they 
do !" It was as if he were covering our heads with a 
shield of prayer. In this he practised his own rule ol 
charity and doctrine of forgiveness, " Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
and pray for them that despitefully use you." 

His prayer, however, seemed but to rouse the fury 
of his Jewish enemies. They broke forth in mockery, 
" Come down ! come down from thy cross ! Thou that 
destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save 
thyself!" The priests and rabbis, standing by, joined in 
the mockery, saying, " He saved others, himself he can- 
not save. Let him come down if he be the Messiah, 
the chosen of God !" My soldiers, meanwhile, were dis- 
puting as to the apportionment of his garments ; I noted 
the rattling of their dice in a brazen helmet wherein they 
cast lots for his seamless robe. 

The thieves upon either hand joined for a time in the 
mockery ; but presently a change came over the one upon 
the right, named Dysmas. The demeanor of Jesus had 
touched his heart ; and after long silence he entreated, 
" Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy king- 
dom !" The Nazarene turned upon him a look of com- 
passionate love, saying, " To-day thou shalt be with me 
in Paradise." It was not long after when this robber's 
head sank upon his breast, but in death his face wore a 
look of indescribable peace. The time came when Jesus' 
word of pardon to him was full of comfort to great sinners. 



THE CENTURION S STORY. 233 

He who saved Dysmas in the article of death, plucking 
him from the edge of the abyss, was thenceforth known to 
be able to save even unto the uttermost all who would 
believe in him. 

Not far from the cross stood a company of women 
wringing their hands in helpiess pain. Among them was 
the mother of the Nazarene. When her son as a child 
had been brought to the Jewish temple, an old priest took 
him from his mother's arms and prophesied, " This child 
is set lor the fall and rise of many in Israel," then looking 
upon the mother said, "A sword shall pierce through thine 
own soul also." At this moment his word was fulfilled ; 
the iron entered her soul. Her dying son beheld 
her, and, with his eyes directing her to one who was 
known as his favorite disciple, said, " Woman, behold thy 
son," who thereupon bore her fainting away. 

It was now noon, a clear, scorching Syrian noon. But 
a veil seemed gathering before the sun. Shadows fell from 
the heights of Moab. Night rose from the ravines, sur- 
ging upward in dark billows, overwhelming all. A strange 
pallor was upon all faces. The gleam on shield and hel- 
met faded out. It was night, Egyptian night at high noon ! 
What meant it ? Manifestly this was no eclipse, for the 
paschal moon was at its full. The Jews had ofttimes clam- 
ored for a sign, a sign whereby they might test this suffer- 
er's Messianic claim. Had the sign come ? Was nature 
sympathizing with her Lord ? Were these shadows the 
trappings of a universal woe ? Was God thus manifest- 
ing his wrath against sin ? Or was this a stupendous fig- 
ure of the position in which this dying Nazarene stood 
with respect to the deliverance of the race from sin ? Once 
in a Jewish synagogue I heard a rabbi read from the scroll 
of Isaiah a prophecy concerning the Messiah ; He was to 
be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our ini- 



234 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

quities ; and by his stripes we should be healed. It was 
predicted that when Messiah came he should, bearing the 
world's burden of sin, go into the outer darkness in expi- 
atory pain. Was it at this awful moment that he carried 
that burden into the region of the lost? Did he just then 
descend into hell for us ? Hark ! a cry from his fever- 
parched lips, piercing the silence and the darkness, u Eloi, 
Eloi) lama sabachthanif My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ?" But for that terrific cry of anguish 
the silence was unbroken for three mortal hours. I have 
known other victims of the cross to vent their rage in im- 
potent wrath, to spit their hate like asps, to harangue the 
crowd with helpless protestations, or to beg for the death- 
stroke ; but this Jesus preserved a majestic silence. The 
people also seemed wrapped in a weird terror. Naught 
was heard but the rattling of armor as some soldier jostled 
his comrade, a sob escaping from some woman's heart, 
the dropping of the blood. 

Thus until the ninth hour of the day. It was the hour 
of the evening sacrifice, and the darkness began slowly to 
lift. It was then that the Nazarene uttered his only word 
of complaint. " I thirst," he said. Whereupon a strange 
thing happened. One of my soldiers, trained in the arena 
and in gladiatorial contests — one who had never been 
known to spare a foe, delighting in the sack of cities, look- 
ing on unmoved when children were dashed against the 
stones — this man dipped a sponge in the sour wine which 
was provided for the guard, and would have raised it to 
the sufferer's lips. The Jews cried out, " Let be, let be, 
and let us see if Elias will come to his relief!" For a mo- 
ment the soldier hesitated, even joined in the cry, then giv- 
ing way to the better promptings of his heart, lifted the 
sponge and assuaged the thirst of the dying man. It was 
the only deed of kindness I noted on Golgotha that day. 



THE CENTURION S STORY- 235 

In return for it the Nazarene cast upon his benefactor such 
a look of gratitude that his nature seemed ever afterwards 
to have been transformed by it. 

Then Jesus cried with a loud voice, " Tetelestai / It 
is finished !" Did it signify that his pain was over ? Well 
might he after such anguish utter a sigh of relief. Or was 
it that his work was accomplished ? So have I seen a 
laborer turn homeward from his day's work with pleasant 
anticipation of rest. So have I seen a wayfarer quicken 
his footsteps as at eventide he came in sight of the village 
lights. So have I seen a soldier, weary with the stress of 
conflict and wounded unto death, bear the standard aloft 
as he climbed the parapet and with his last voice shout 
for victory ! 

And then the last word. It was spoken softly, as if 
coming from the threshold of the other world, " Father, 
into thy hands I commend my spirit !" Then, as he 
yielded up the ghost, a look of surpassing peace fell upon 
his upturned face which lingered there when death had 
put its rigid seal upon it. Thus he fell on sleep. I have 
ofttimes since been reminded of that look when I have 
seen an infant lulled in its mother's arms, or when, walk- 
ing through a Christian cemetery, I have noted upon the 
tombstones of martyrs the word "Dormit. He sleeps." 

The supernatural darkness had now given way to the 
calm twilight. The sky was covered far towards the ze- 
nith with a golden splendor crossed with bars of crimson 
light. It looked as if heaven's gates were opened, and 
one gazing through could almost seem to see the flitting 
of superhuman shapes and hear far-away voices calling, 
" Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; even lift them up, ye 
everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in !" 

At that moment the earth rumbled under my feet ; a 
shudder seemed to pass through nature. It was said that 



236 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

as the high priest was kindling the lamps in the Holy 
Place of the Temple, this being the hour of the evening 
sacrifice, the great veil hanging before the Holy of Holies 
was rent from the top to the bottom as if by an unseen 
hand. This happened at the instant when the Nazarene 
yielded up his spirit; and his followers are wont to say 
that when he passed from earth to resume his heavenly 
glory a new and living way was opened up for penitent 
sinners into the Holiest of All. 

The execution being over, the people slowly dispersed 
to their homes. The twilight settled down on Golgotha. 
A group of wailing women lingered for a while, then 
went their way. Against the sky stood forth the outlines 
of the three crosses. On the face of Dysmas the moon- 
light showed the look of peace that had settled upon it at 
Jesus' word of pardon. The robber on the left had 
dropped his face in anguish upon his breast. In the 
midst Jesus looked upwards, dead but triumphant ! Long 
and steadfastly I gazed upon him. The events of the day 
crowding upon my mind, my conviction deepened that 
this was no common man. My conscience was sorely 
smitten ; my heart was inexpressibly touched by the mem- 
ory of the things which had happened. A tide of grief 
overwhelmed me. I dismounted from my horse, my sol- 
diers looking on in wonder. I knelt before the middle 
cross ; I prostrated myself upon the earth. The truth 
went surging irresistibly through my soul, until at length, 
able to restrain myself no longer, I confessed, " Verily, 
verily, thou art the Son of God /" 

I am old now. The end draws near. For half a cen- 
tury have I loved and served him. In my body are the 
marks of the Lord Jesus. Fears have sometimes com- 
passed me about. But never have I known the moment 
when I would recall my vow of devotion to him. Trials 



THE CENTURION S STORY. 237 

and sorrows have but deepened my conviction ; for he 
has given me songs in the night. I have seen men and 
women for his name's sake die without a murmur, heroic 
amid the flames, triumphant when cast to lions. I have 
heard them with their last breath protest with joy, "Chris- 
tianus stun /" The Master himself seemed to be holding 
them up with his everlasting arms — a living Christ, an 
omnipotent Christ, an ever-present Christ, even as he 
promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world. ,, 

The cross in my time has been transformed from an 
emblem of shame into a symbol of victory. And the 
Christ who suffered upon it has been made unto me wis- 
dom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 
I have learned somewhat of the meaning of his life and of 
his death and of his glorious resurrection. Many glorious 
hopes have I, but the most earnest is that I who crucified 
him may yet behold his face in peace — that I, who bowed 
that night with broken heart beneath his cross, may some 
day see the King in his beauty and fall before his throne, 
crying, " My Lord and my God !" 



238 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



PAUL'S 
EASTER SERMON AT ANTIOCH. 



" Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand, said — " Acts 

13:16. 

This was in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia. At 
the further end stood a desk for the reader. Above that 
was the women's gallery ; their faces could be seen behind 
the partition of lattice-work. On the side of the room 
nearest Jerusalem was the ark or chest for the sacred 
scrolls. Seats for the worshippers were arranged accord- 
ing to station, those for the rabbis being nearest the read- 
er's desk. As each attendant entered he cast a scarf over 
his shoulder, the sacred tallith with its four tassels. Among 
the worshippers on this particular day were two strangers. 
One was a man of imposing presence and benignant coun- 
tenance, with clear, kindly eyes, — a gracious man whom 
we know as " the Son of Consolation. " His companion 
was of smaller stature, described as a man " of mean pres- 
ence," with stooping shoulders and defective sight. These 
two found their way to the rabbinical seats. 

The service commenced with a prayer recited by the 
reader or "Angel of the Assembly." Then the Chazan 
brought from the ark the sacred scroll, from which was 
read the Scripture for the day. Then singing from the 
Psalter, which was the Hebrew hymn-book. After that 



PAUL'S EASTER SERMON AT AXTIOCH. 239 

the service was thrown open, according to custom, to such 
as occupied rabbinical seats. A special invitation was 
extended to the two strangers. " Men and brethren," 
said the leader, " if ye have any word of exhortation for 
the people, say on." 

Then Paul arose and beckoned with his hand. He 
was a master of dialectics. In this very beckoning with his 
hand we note an evidence of his rhetorical skill. It was 
his first sermon. He had been familiar with forensic dis- 
putation in the Sanhedrin in former years. But to-day 
he was to make his maiden effort as a minister of the gos- 
pel. 

If you have ever spent a week in London it is safe to 
say that on Sunday morning you betook yourself, possi- 
bly by an omnibus marked "To the Elephant and Cas- 
tle," across London Bridge to the Metropolitan Taberna- 
cle. From all directions the crowds were going that way 
to hear the greatest of modern preachers whose voice 
has recently been hushed in death. In him there was lit- 
tle of the pomp and circumstance of the homiletic art. It 
was a delight to hear him in the midst of the vast assem- 
blage — his hands grasping the rail before him in the atti- 
tude of a jury pleader — simple, earnest, grandly eloquent, 
setting forth the glorious gospel of the blessed God. It 
minded one of the wish of quaint Nicholas Breton : 
" I would I were an excellent divine 

That had the Bible at my fingers' ends, 
That men might hear out of this mouth of mine 
How God doth make his enemies his friends." 

But this greatest of our modern preachers is scarcely to be 
compared with the apostle who arose in the Pisidian syna- 
gogue and beckoned with his hand that day. His sermon 
was a masterpiece ; it will bear analysis. 

I. His text. He found his text in the sixteenth Psalm, 



240 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

which was probably the Scriptural lesson of the day : " I 
have set the Lord always before me : because he is at my 
right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is 
glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall rest in 
hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither 
wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. " The 
title of this Psalm is Michtam, or hiding. Christ hides 
behind the lattice of this prophecy uttered a thousand years 
before the world saw him. 

II. His exordium. He began with an historical resu- 
me, tracing the footsteps of Messiah from the Exodus to 
the Cross. The striking feature of this introduction is its 
resemblance to a speech which Paul had heard twelve 
years before in the Hall Gazith. He was at that time a 
member of the Sanhedrin. The deacon Stephen was 
brought before that tribunal for trial. In making his de- 
fence he began with the call of Abraham, and followed 
the golden thread of Messianic prediction through the his- 
tory of Israel until, overcome with indignation at the peo- 
ple's hardness of heart and casting prudence to the winds, 
he cried out : " Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in 
heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ! As 
your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have 
not your fathers persecuted ? They have slain them 
which showed before of the coming of the Just One ; of 
whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers !" 
At this point the audience, cut to the heart, gnashed on 
him with their teeth and ran upon him with one accord. 
They cast him out beyond the city walls and stoned him. 
As he bowed his bruised and bleeding face before the 
storm of missiles, he cried, " Lord Jesus, receive my spir- 
it !" and again, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge !" 
While this was transpiring the clothes of the ringleaders 
were held by young Saul of Tarsus, who to-day in the 



PAUL'S EASTER SERMON AT ANTIOCH. 24I 

synagogue at Antioch preaches the gospel of Christ. His 
words are an echo of Stephen's, as if his voice had fallen 
upon the sensitive plate of a phonograph to be kept and 
reproduced in due time. So true is it that, though the 
saints rest from their labors, their words as well as their 
works do follow them. / 

The historical resume of St. Paul, which brought him 
to the death and burial of Jesus, was concluded with the 
abrupt words, "But God raised him from the dead !" 
And he continued, " We thus declare unto you glad 
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the 
fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children 
in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written, 
' Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee/ " 

III. The argument. In stating this proposition of the 
Resurrection, observe how Paul begins with God. It is 
impossible to proceed with the argument otherwise. For 
only upon the assumption of Omnipotence can we frame 
an antecedent probability or even possibility of a resur- 
rection from the dead. But Paul's brain and conscience 
and heart were filled with the consciousness of God. His 
life was overarched by the truth of the divine presence. 
In his philosophy all things are of God and through God 
and for God. 

Then, having shown the resurrection possible by the 
affirmation of almighty power, he reviews the Messianic 
prophecies. Three in particular are referred to : " Thou 
art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee " (Psa. 2:7); 
" I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the 
sure mercies of David" (Isa. 55 : 3) ; and, " Thou wilt not 
suffer thy Holy One to see corruption" (Psa. 16: 10). 

This anticipation of Messiah's triumph over death was 
known as the hope of Israel. It lay \n Scripture like 
Aaron's rod in the Ark of the Covenant : cut off from 

16 



242 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

mother earth and from the parent stem, shut out from air 
and sunlight, yet in fulness of time putting forth tokens 
of newness of life. 

Men have always feared Death. They have called 
him the King of Terrors. They have seen him stalking 
through palace gates and bowing low to enter the cottage 
door. They have known that the time was coming when 
they — every one — must bow before him. This fear was 
relieved by the hope of the coming of One who would 
conquer Sin and bind at his girdle the keys of Death and 
of Hell. He was to be the " death of Death and Hell's 
destruction. " All human-kind were in bondage under 
sin and in subjection unto death, like the garrison of a 
beleaguered city, gaunt and desperate, gazing wistfully 
afar off with one forlorn hope. The story of the bursting 
of the sepulchre in Joseph's garden was like a bugle-blast 
on the distant hills, the footfall of an army come for de- 
liverance, the waving of banners to tell that One might- 
ier than Death drew nigh to save his people. " We de- 
clare unto you glad tidings," said Paul, " how that the 
promise made unio the fathers is fulfilled unto us !" 

Observe, he does not undertake to prove the resurrec- 
tion of Christ. The reason is obvious. It was beyond 
the necessity of proof. Had one risen in the assembly 
and cried, "I doubt it!" scores of witnesses could have 
been summoned to certify that they had seen Jesus alive 
after his crucifixion, had seen his scarred face and 
wounded hands, had talked with him, bowed under his 
benediction, and seen him vanish in the opening clouds of 
heaven. Scores ? Ay, hundreds upon hundreds, for this 
thing was not done in a corner. He was seen " by above 
five hundred at once." We are now eighteen hundred 
years beyond the event; and yet the proofs of the resur- 
rection of JesHS are so striking that no fair-minded man 



PAUL'S EASTER SERMON AT ANTIOCH. 243 

will resist them. Dr. Arnold of Rugby, one of the pro- 
foundest students of history, said truly, " I do not know 
of any historical fact more substantially proven by cumu- 
lative evidence than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. ,, 

IV. The application. The practical importance of this 
doctrine is set forth by St. Paul, here and more elaborately 
elsewhere, as a sign and a seal. 

(1.) It is a sign of the divinity of yesus. His enemies 
were continually clamoring for a sign. He professed to 
be their Messiah. " Show us a sign," they cried, " and 
we will believe thee." He answered, " There shall no 
sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas, for as 
Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's 
belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three 
nights in the heart of the earth." 

On this grand miracle the Lord adventures the truth 
of his Messianic claims and the integrity of his redemptive 
work. He showed himself to be the Son of God with 
power by his resurrection from the dead. Rom. 1 : 4. 

It is related that Charlemagne was buried by his own 
desire in a sitting posture, clothed in purple and ermine, 
his crown upon his head and his sceptre in his hand. Long 
afterwards his tomb was opened by the Emperor Otho, 
but alas ! little was left of the imperial glory ! The crown 
had fallen from Charlemagne's bleached brow, his sceptre 
lay in the dust, his royal robes had rotted and fallen about 
him. Sic transit gloria mundi. But not so with Jesus. 
It was prophesied that God would not leave him in the 
grave nor suffer his Holy One to see corruption. By this 
was he proven to be far above all principalities and pow- 
ers. Being superior to the King of Terrors, he hath upon 
his vesture and upon his thigh written a name, King of 
kings and Lord of lords. In this he presents his creden- 
tials ; by this he corroborates his teaching ; and hereby 



244 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

he for ever certifies the effectiveness of his redemptive 
work. 

(2.) This miracle is also a seal of the covenant oj life. 
Because he lives, we shall live also. We stand gazing out 
towards an unknown world, bewildered and questioning, 
" If a man die, will he live again ?" Our fathers dreamed 
of life and immortality — dreamed and hoped and won- 
dered ; but now since Christ has risen the shadows are 
gone ; we dream no more ; in him life and immortality- 
are brought to light ! When Madame de Gasparin went 
through the burial crypts under Palermo, her faith for the 
moment forsook her. Walking amid the heaped up bones 
of centuries, treading upon the dust of the multitudinous 
and forgotten dead, oppressed by the mould and the chill, 
she was moved to ask like the prophet in the Valley of 
Vision, "Can these slain live?'' But as she came from 
the crypt into the sunshine, turning backwards she saw 
above the archway, Jesu Nazaret, Rex Judceorum — the 
very words that were written upon the cross. Jesus of 
Nazareth is King of the whole Israel of God. And be- 
holding that, her faith came back as in a sun-burst, flood- 
ing her heart with indescribable joy. Ah, beloved, with 
him all things are possible. He was dead, but liveth and 
is alive for evermore, and hath the keys of Death and 
Hell ! And because he lives we shall live also. 

Paul elsewhere (1 Cor. 15) elaborates the argument on 
this wise, " Now if Christ be preached that he rose from 
the dead, how say some among you that there is no resur- 
rection of the dead ? For if there be no resurrection of 
the dead, then is Christ not risen : and if Christ be not 
risen, our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. 
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God ; because we 
have testified of God that he raised up Christ ; whom he 
raised not up if so be that the dead rise not. For if the 






PAUL'S EASTER SERMON AT ANTIOCH. 245 

dead rise not, then is not Christ raised ; and if Christ be 
not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. 
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are per- 
ished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are 
of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from 
the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 
Behold I show you a mystery : we shall not all sleep but 
we shall all be changed, rn a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound 
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, 
and this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is srn ; 
and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God 
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immov- 
able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, foras- 
much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the 
Lord." 

V. The peroration. This Easter sermon concludes 
with an impressive offer of salvation in the name of the 
risen Christ: " Be it known unto you, therefore, men and 
brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the 
forgiveness of sins." He who conquered death is able to 
save unto the uttermost all who by faith will come unto 
him. 

I greet you this morning, beloved, in the name of the 
living Christ. The Lord is risen ! The Lord is risen in- 
deed ! It makes a great difference to those who love 
him. After his death and burial the disciples were over- 
come with grief. They had hoped that it had been he 
who should deliver Israel. But they had suffered a sad 



246 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

disillusioning. He was dead ; and with him hope had 
died. They went about with slow steps and downcast 
faces. Then on a sudden came a change. There was 
running to and fro. John ran; Peter ran ; the women 
came running down the slopes of Olivet. One to another 
they cried, " The Lord is risen ! The Lord is risen in- 
deed !" It transformed their lives. They went everywhere 
preaching it. Oh let us make more and more of the doc- 
trine of the risen Christ. He is not dead ! He is alive 
and liveth for evermore ! He hath the keys of Death and 
Hell ! Peace be with you in his name. Into the upper 
chamber he came in the calmness of his great triumph, 
and lifting his pierced hands in benediction, said, " Peace 
be unto you." It is the greeting of the Easter morning. 
The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep 
your minds and hearts through Christ Jesus. Amen. 



"THE GREAT REFUSAL. 247 



-THE GREAT REFUSAL." 



"And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running 
and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall 
I do that I may inherit eternal life ? And Jesus said unto him, 
Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, that 
is God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit 
adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, 
Defraud not, Honor thy father and mother. And he answered 
and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my 
youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto 
him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou 
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me." Mark 
10:17-21. 

The key-note of our Lord's preaching was life. " I 
am come," said he, " that ye might have life and that ye 
might have it more abundantly." He was speaking of a 
life above and beyond that of mere breathing and eating 
and toiling and sleeping and rising again to mingle in 
the affairs of the workshop and the market-place. 

" We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs. " 

And again he said, " Except ye eat the flesh and drink 
the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you." 
That is, in order to attain and enjoy the higher life, we 
must enter into participation with the best and noblest. 
To our Lord food and raiment were minor considerations; 
he was ever seeking the kingdom of God and righteous- 
ness. His meat and drink were to do the will of the Fa- 



248 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ther and to serve the welfare of his fellow-men. And 
again he said, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his life (New Version), or what shall 
a man give in exchange for his life?" It is possible, 
then, to continue an animal existence for ever and still be 
utterly and for ever devoid of life. To fall short of glory- 
is, in a dreadful sense, to enter into the regions of death, 
which is but another way of saying to be exiled from 
God. It is the divine will that all who have fallen from 
their original estate of God-likeness should return and be 
again with and like God. To this end Christ came into 
the world, as it is written, " For God so loved the world 
that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
lifer 

The young man in this narrative was worth looking at. 
To begin with, he was young, and youth is always inter- 
esting. Then he was rich, "very rich," and "a ruler" 
besides. Better still, he was of upright character, claim- 
ing a due respect for the divine law. He was amiable 
also, for when the Lord looked upon him he loved him. 
But the best of all was his earnestness. A young man in 
earnest, and in earnest with respect to spiritual things ! 
The sight is not so common but that we may profitably 
pause to admire and ponder it. 

This youth had doubtless heard the preaching of Jesus 
with respect to the kingdom ; had heard him set forth the 
excellency of the spiritual life — that higher life which we 
share with the Infinite : and his heart went out after it so 
fervently that, as Jesus was passing, he ran and prostrated 
himself before him, crying, " Good Master, what shall I do 
that I may inherit eternal life?" 

Fasten your eyes here, O frivolous youth — you that 
chase thistledown and butterflies while the world rolls on 



"THE GREAT REFUSAL. 249 

to judgment. Do you remember Froude's description of 
the young men whom Catiline gathered about him ? 
" Smooth-faced, with curled hair and redolent with per- 
fumes, as yet beardless or with the first down upon their 
chins, wearing scarves and veils and sleeved tunics reach- 
ing to their ankles, industrious but only with the dice- 
box, night- watchers but /in the supper-rooms, in the small 
hours before dawn, immodest, dissolute boys, whose edu- 
cation had been in learning to love and to be loved, to 
sing and to dance at the midnight orgies." Was it a 
wonder that Catiline failed in his great conspiracy when 
his comrades and counsellors were of such a character ? 
It was to be seen from the beginning that his effort would 
be a fiasco; for earnestness is ever the earnest of success; 
frivolity, of failure. When Caesar saw Brutus for the first 
time and heard him pleading in the Forum, he said, " Yon 
youth is destined to make his mark, because he intends 
strongly." The youth who here prostrated himself be- 
fore Jesus intended strongly. But, alas, there were grave 
difficulties in the way. The heavenward path is ever 
steep and rugged. Three serious mistakes he made, any 
one of which would have nullified his pursuit of spiritual 
things. It is niuch to be feared that together they cost 
him his life. 

I. With respect to Christ. At this point he was an 
Arian. He addressed Jesus as " good Rabbi," and would 
probably have been willing to pronounce him the most 
excellent of men. But Jesus would have none of it. 
'" Why callest thou me good?" said he; "there is none 
good but one, that is, God." The alternative, put in syl- 
logistic form, was like this : 

God alone is good : 

Thou dost not believe me to be God; 

Ergo, Call me not good. 



250 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

Or, 

God alone is good : 

Thou callest me good ; 

Ergo, Go further and pronounce me God. 
In any case, as merely a " good Rabbi, " He could not 
receive it. The compliments of those who esteem him 
anything else or lower than he claimed to be are, in the 
nature of the case, an affront to him. 

All through these eighteen hundred years there has 
been no lack of such vain adulation. Pilate in the act of 
sentencing Jesus to death pronounced him " a faultless 
man." Porphyry the Neo-Platonist, who rejected all his 
divine claims, was fond of calling him " a pious man." 
Spinoza, who flouted his divineness, was still willing to 
call him "the temple of God." The infidel Rousseau re- 
ferred to him as " a man of colossal dimensions, of won- 
derful sweetness and purity of life." Goethe, who was 
possibly the most unchristian of poets, went so far as to 
say that Jesus " was as divine as ever the divine appeared 
on earth." Channing the Unitarian said, " His was a 
character wholly removed from human comprehension ; I 
know not what can be added to heighten the reverence 
and love due to him." Theodore Parker said, " His was 
the mightiest heart that ever beat in a human breast." 
John Stuart Mill, who can scarcely be said to have had 
any consistent religious belief, spoke of Jesus as " a unique 
figure, a man charged to lead mankind to truth and vir- 
tue." The freethinker Richter said, " Jesus was purest 
among the mighty and mightiest among the pure ; who 
with his pierced hand has raised empires from their foun- 
dations, turned the stream of history from its old channel, 
and still continues to rule and guide the ages." David 
Strauss said " he was the highest model of religion within 
the reach of human thought." And Ernest Renan, " We 



"THE GREAT REFUSAL. 25 I 

believe him to be in the front rank of the great family of 
the sons of God. He was an incomparable man, greater 
than any in the past and probably than any to come. 
Whatever the surprises of the future may be, Jesus of 
Nazareth will never be surpassed. All ages will proclaim 
that none greater than he has been born among the chil- 
dren of men." All this is adulation rendered by such as 
utterly rejected the divine claims of Jesus. It is robing 
him in mocking purple, placing in his hand an impotent 
reed, and crying, " Hail, O King !" 

If any of you have been disposed to think of him in 
this manner it will be profitable to recall the amazing pre- 
tensions which were made by him as the claimant of Mes- 
sianic honors. All through his ministry he insisted that 
he was the long-looked-for Christ, and as such the very 
Son of God. He arrogated to himself all the divine attri- 
butes and distinctly made himself equal with God. For 
this he suffered death. On the last fatal morning when he 
was brought into the presence of the Sanhedrin the high 
priest Caiaphas said to him, " I adjure you by the living 
God, tell us plainly whether thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God !" And Jesus answered, " I am ; and ye 
shall, I say unto you, hereafter see the Son of man sitting 
on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds ol 
heaven. " (Mark 14 : 62.) The impression made by this 
avowal at the time is manifest from the fact that the high 
priest rent his garments, crying, " Blasphemy ! blasphe- 
my !" while the other members of the court joined in the 
ominous response, Ish Maveih I " He is worthy to die !" 
A little later he was brought before Pilate, that the sanc- 
tion of the Roman Government might be put upon the 
finding of the Jewish court. Pilate in turn took him aside 
and asked, "Art thou the King of the. Jews ?" that is, Art 
thou Messiah, the long-promised Prince of the House of 



252 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

David ? And Jesus answered (using - the strongest form of 
affirmation which was possible in those days), " Thou say- 
est it. But now is my kingdom not from hence. To 
this end was I born and for this cause came I into the 
world, that I might bear witness of the truth." He thus 
distinctly claimed to be Messiah. At mention of that 
claim the Jews in sudden fury cried, " Crucify him ! cru- 
cify him I" Calmly Pilate answered, " Will ye crucify 
your Messiah ?" He sent him to Golgotha apparelled like 
a king, and over his cross was the titulum> " This is Jesus, 
the King of the Jews." In view of these things, I say that 
to ascribe mere human virtues to Jesus is to fall infinitely 
short of the truth. Arianism is anti-Christ. He was either 
what he claimed to be or he was an impostor. " Good 
Rabbi " he certainly was not. There is no middle ground, 
Was Voltaire right when he cried, " Ecrasez V infame T 
or Peter when he said, - Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God " ? 

II. The second mistake made by the young ruler was 
with reference to himself. At this point he was a Pela- 
gian. He had no comprehension of his own moral char- 
acter. When reminded of the commandments he said, 
"All these have I kept from my youth up." He had in 
fact kept none of them. Nor have you. Nor have I. 
The first of them is, Thou shall have no other gods before 
vie — no love nor passion nor ambition coming between us 
and the Infinite One. Let each for himself answer, Guilty 
or not guilty ? Thou shall not take the name of the Lord 
thy God in vain — a precept covering all forms of impiety 
in thought, word, or deed. Guilty or not guilty ? Re- 
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy. To-day is the 
Sabbath : have you kept it thus far ? Thou shall not kill; 
to hate one's brother without a cause is murder. Thou 
shall not commit adultery : an unclean glance is adultery. 



"THE GREAT REFUSAL. 253 

Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shall ?iot 
covet. Guilty or not guilty? Ah we all alike hide our 
faces with shame. No one of us has kept one of the com- 
mandments ! 

This youth was under a sad delusion. In one of Ho- 
garth's cartoons a demented prisoner sits in the straw, 
chained like a beast to his dungeon wall ; but he smiles 
and sings as if he were the happiest of mortals. The straw 
is his throne, his jailers are his courtiers; he deems him- 
self the envy of crowned kings. Not greater is his self- 
deception than that of the self-righteous man who deems 
himself worthy to appear in judgment before God. For 
all such the message addressed to the Laodiceans has a 
peculiar interest : " Because thou sayest, I am rich and in- 
creased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest 
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and 
blind and naked ; I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried 
in the fire that thou may est be rich, and white raiment that ■ 
thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy naked- 
ness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve 
that thou mayest see." 

III. The third mistake made by this young man was 
with respect to salvation. At this point he was a Legalist. 
" What shall I do," said he, "that I may inherit eternal 
life ?" There was indeed nothing for him to do. Had he 
but known it, life is a gracious gift. If we are ever saved 
it will not be on account of our doing, but by God's giv- 
ing. He is not a merchant that he should sell his precious 
wares ; he is a king and gives right royally. He does in- 
deed bow the heavens and come down ; he stands at the 
corners of the streets, like a vendor of wares, crying, 
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and 
he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, 
buy wine and milk without money and without price!" 



254 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

But while salvation is free it is conditioned. God who 
gives it has been pleased — as was his obvious right — to 
affix a condition upon its bestowal, to wit, He that be- 
lieveth shall live. To believe is to accept. Faith is the 
hand stretched out to grasp God's grace. Salvation is 
free— free as air, as water, as the manna which lay like 
hoar-frost on the ground. But if the Israelites had not 
gathered up the manna they would have died of hunger. 
And though a man stood on the bank of the Amazon, 
were he to refuse to drink he would perish of thirst. There 
is an atmosphere fifty miles deep around this earth of ours, 
but a man who will not breathe must strangle. So I say 
salvation is free ; but it saves only the man who reaches 
forth and takes it. 

This story is called " The Great Refusal. ,, Yonder 
goes the young man, turning his back on life — " very sad, 
for he was very rich." He loved something better than 
life. Whether he ever changed his mind we know not. 
The curtain falls ; we may not lift it. The important con- 
sideration is that life is just now offered to every one of 
us. It is to be had for the taking. But unless we take it 
we shall not have it. The word of the Master comes to 
you as to this young man, " Go sell all that thou hast — 
put away everything, gold, pleasure, unholy ambition, 
everything that separates between thee and holiness — and 
come and follow Me." 






OUR PASSOVER. 255 



OUR PASSOVER. 



"Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, 
Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and 
kill the Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop and 
dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and 
the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin ; and 
none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the 
morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyp- 
tians ; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the 
two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not 
suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 
And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and 
to thy sons for ever." Exod. 12:21-24. 

" For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us ; therefore let us 
keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of 
malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sin- 
cerity and truth." 1 Cor. 5:7, 8. 

It is a noteworthy fact that of the sacred times and 
seasons of the Old Economy we have nothing left but the 
feast of the Passover. The perpetuation of that feast was 
provided for and announced in its original institution ; as 
the Lord said, " Ye shall observe this thing for an ordi- 
nance to thee and to thy children for ever." 

It is recorded that on that memorable night when Jesus 
was betrayed he ate the Passover with his disciples, and 
at the same time established the Holy Communion as its 
successor, the broken bread representing the flesh, and 
the wine the blood of the Paschal lamb. " Do this," he 
said, " in remembrance of me." He thus rescued the 
Passover feast from among the vanishing shadows of 
the ceremonial economy, and gave it in simpler form but 
with unbroken continuity a perpetual place among the 



256 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ordinances of the new dispensation. So Paul writes to 
the Corinthians, " Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed, for 
us; therefore let us keep the feast with the unleavened 
bread of sincerity and truth." 

It will be interesting to note some of the points of re- 
semblance which seal the identity of this feast with the 
Eucharist of the Christian Church. 

I. The original Passover feast was observed at night. 
It was the night of the fourteenth of Nisan. A serene calm 
followed the boisterous day. The land was lighted by 
the benignant rays of a full moon. King and people were 
asleep, unmindful of approaching danger. But the He- 
brews were awake; lights glimmered in their homes. 
They had been forewarned that in their behalf the Lord 
was about to make bare his arm. The four hundred and 
thirty years of their oppression were at an end. They 
had passed their last day in the brick-kilns. As the night 
wore on a sudden light gleamed in the window of the 
king's chamber, and the cry of the queen-mother rang 
out. Death had smitten the heir-apparent to the throne ! 
Then another cry in the beggar's hut where a wretched 
mother pressed her hand upon the cold and pulseless 
breast of her firstborn. Presently lights were kindled in 
all the Egyptian homes, for the avenging Angel had 
breathed upon them all. A wail of mingled sorrow and 
anguish from ten thousand breaking hearts gave the sig- 
nal to the waiting bondmen. Staff* in hand they crossed 
the threshold, passed along the streets and out through 
the gates into the wilderness, then on through toil and 
danger and weariness to the land that flowed with milk 
and honey, of which the Lord had said, " Behold, I will 
give it you." 

It was a darker night than that when our Lord hung 
dying on his cross. At high noon the shadows closed 



OUR PASSOVER. 2$} 

around him. Earth never saw so deep a darkness, nor 
was night ever pierced with a cry so dismal, Eloi, Eloi, 
lama sabachthani ! At that moment he, bearing our sins, 
like the scape-goat on its way to the desert, went into the 
outer darkness for us. At that moment " he descended 
into hell " for us. His cry of abandonment was the signal 
of our deliverance. When his anguish had reached its 
utmost v/e, healed by his stripes, passed forth into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God. 

II. The Passover feast was kept within doors. This was 
true of no other of the great festivals. At Pentecost the 
husbandmen with their sheaves and baskets of olives came 
from all directions to wave them, as their offering of first- 
fruits, before the altar. At the feast of Tabernacles the 
people, who dwelt in temporary booths upon the mount- 
ain slopes, passed along the roads and through the streets 
of Jerusalem waving lulab branches and shouting hosan- 
nas. But at the Passover each family was assembled 
within its own doors. This was preeminently the home 
festival ; it was the Jewish Thanksgiving day, the time for 
the " hame-bringing," when absent sons and daughters 
came back and when the beloved dead were remembered. 
On other days the ties of kinship might be ignored, but 
on that day blood was always thicker than water. It was 
a time for praising the Lord because he hath set the soli- 
tary in families. The father presided, the children heark- 
ened to his counsels and joined him in gratitude for the 
blessings of the roof-tree. 

The Lord's Supper is our family feast. Here the 
Elder Brother takes our hands and places them in the 
strong grasp of the Infinite One, bidding us say after him, 
"Abba, Father." We here commune with one another in 
the household of faith and with him who is the God and 
Father of us all. 

17 



2$8 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

" Blest be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in Christian love ; 
The fellowship of kindred minds 
Is like to that above." 

III. The Lamb was at the centre of the Paschal feast. 
It must be a lamb of the first year and without blemish. 
The four days previous to the Passover were set apart for 
careful inspection. The lamb was placed in the hands of 
judicious persons, who were instructed to see that there 
should be no spot nor blemish in it. 

By a curious coincidence the four days previous to our 
Lord's crucifixion were days of peculiar trial. They are 
known as "the days of temptation." On Monday of 
Passion Week the Lord made his triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem,, was rebuked by his enemies for permitting the 
hosannas of the people, healed the sick, taught in the 
temple-porch, and was approached by certain Greeks who 
11 desired to see him." On Tuesday he purged the tem- 
ple, thereby provoking the Jewish leaders to more vigor- 
ous measures against him. On Wednesday the rabbis 
called his divine authority in question, and sought to en- 
trap him by a query respecting the baptism of John. The 
Herodians tried him with a difficult and dangerous ques- 
tion as to the payment of tribute; the Sadducees sought 
to ensnare him in the problem of the " sevenfold widow ;" 
and a certain lawyer tested him with reference to " the 
first and greatest commandment." The day closed in 
with a council of conspirators, among whom Judas ap- 
peared and covenanted to betray him. On Thursday he 
remained at Bethany beyond the immediate reach of his 
enemies, but came in the evening into Jerusalem to keep 
the Passover with his disciples. All day his enemies had 
been awaiting him, and when he left the upper chamber 
they followed him to the Garden of the Wine-press. 



OUR PASSOVER. 259 

Thus the days of preparation, known as the Paraskeue, 
were strictly kept with respect to this Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world. The eyes of many were upon 
him to discover any possible spot or blemish. And when 
the preparation was over he was led as a lamb to the 
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so 
he opened not his mouth. 

IV. The blood of the Paschal sacrifice was sprinkled on 
the door-posts and the lintel. It was not enough that the 
lamb should have been slain. The head of the household 
must arrange for the sprinkling of the blood where the 
destroying Angel might see it. For so it had been prom- 
ised, " When I see the blood I will pass over you." The 
rabbis tell, in one of their sacred books, of a sick girl 
who on that memorable night was troubled with appre- 
hension lest due precautions had not been taken. She 
called her father to her couch, saying, " Father, I greatly 
fear lest the blood hath not been sprinkled on the lintels 
of the door. I pray thee, see to it." He laughed at her 
fears, but at her persistent entreaty he went and looked, 
and lo, his servant had neglected his task. The basin 
and the branch of hyssop were speedily brought, the 
blood was sprinkled, and the household saved. 

In like manner the merits of the Saviour's blood are 
effective only for such as appropriate it. The lamb slain 
has power to save only as his blood is sprinkled on the 
sinful heart. He that believeth shall be saved; he that 
believeth not shall be damned. Faith is the condition of 
life. Faith is the hand that appropriates. Faith is the 
hyssop branch that sprinkles the lintels of the door. O 
beloved, I pray you see to it that the sprinkling has not 
been overlooked. The night is dark, the black-winged 
angel is above us ; but we are quite secure if we have 
entrusted our welfare to the only- begotten Son of God. 



260 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

The promise is sure : " When I see the blood, I will pass 
over you." 

V. The lamb was eaten with bitter herbs and unleav- 
ened bread. The bitter herbs were a reminder of the toil 
and weariness of Egypt. The unleavened -bread was a 
symbol of the sinless life. The two together set forth the 
nature and necessity of repentance. For repentance is, 
on the one side, sorrow for sin, and on the other, an 
abandonment of it. On the night of the ancient Passover 
it was the custom, and is still in many Jewish homes, for 
the head of the household to go with lighted candle 
searching for leaven in every nook and cranny. Leaven 
is the type of sin. The Egyptians used it. The Israelites 
were to be for ever separated from Egypt by abjuring it. 

At the Lord's Supper we remember with sorrow our 
Lord's passion for us and with joy his breaking of our 
bonds. In memory of his sacrifice we renew in this sacra- 
mentum our vows of devotion and signify our abhorrence 
of and departure from sin. Wherefore Paul enjoins upon 
us to purge out the old leaven. " Let us keep the feast, 
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and 
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity 
and truth." 

I beseech you, brethren, to put aside this day every 
weight and the sin which doth so easily beset you. As 
we in repeated Eucharists cast off more and more our 
Egyptian bondage, let us leave farther and farther behind 
us the leaven with the leeks and flesh-pots. For we are 
called to be a separate and peculiar people. " Be not 
conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the 
renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that 
good and acceptable and perfect will of God." 

VI. The children of Israel ate their Passover with san- 
dals on and staff in hand. They were ready for the signal 



OUR PASSOVER. 261 

of departure. It is much to be doubted whether they 
would have gone so cheerfully had they known what was 
before them — the forty years of wandering, the blazing 
suns, the scorching sands, the thirst and hunger, flying 
serpents and flaming arrows, weakness and weariness, 
and multitudes of graves along the way. Had they known 
of these, they would have thought twice ere they ex- 
changed the brick-kilns for the wilderness. But blessed 
be God, the future is not revealed to us. The divine 
guidance is like a lantern which throws a dim light only 
a single step ahead. At this distance it is plain to see 
that the long journey of the Israelites was needful to the 
making of the nation. So, we may rest assured, all things 
are working together for our good* We are asked to 
bind on our sandals, uplift our banners, and march out of 
Egypt in the name of the living God. The life to which 
we are called is no sinecure, but its tasks and crosses will 
be adjusted to our ability. " As thy days so shall thy 
strength be. ,, 

" Oh blissful lack of wisdom ; 

T is blessed not to know ; 
God holds me with his own right hand, 

And will not let me go ; 
My troubled soul is lulled to rest 

In him who loves me so. 

" So on I go not knowing ; 

I would not if I might ; 
I 'd rather walk in the dark with God 

Than go alone in the light ; 
I 'd rather walk by faith with him 

Than go alone by sight.' ' 

That night when the children of Israel went out of Egypt 
was momentous in many ways. It meant not only the 
deliverance of six hundred thousand men with their wo- 
men and children from a bondage that was like a living 



262 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

death ; it meant also the building of a* nation which was 
to uplift the torch of progress and civilization through all 
the future ages. As they passed out of the Egyptian 
cities they threw off, avowedly, the worship of the Egyp- 
tian deities and put on loyalty to Jehovah who was thence- 
forth to be their only God. The Passover marked their 
utter surrender of life and possessions to him. 

The Eucharist is a feast of glad consecration. Here 
we renounce the idols of the world and put on more and 
more devotion to our God. Not long ago a foreign po- 
tentate was received with much pomp and circumstance 
by the Lord Mayor of London. He came along the Strand 
with courtiers and attendants to Temple Bar, at the bor- 
ders of the old city, where the Lord Mayor met him and 
delivered to him the keys of London, so signifying that he 
was welcome not merely to the freedom of the city but 
also to the custody of it. As we at this sacramental gate- 
way of promise pass out into the larger and better life, 
let us turn over the keys to our Prince. Come in, thou 
Blessed One ! Come in and possess thine own. 

"Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to thee ; 
Take my hands and let them move 
At the impulse of thy love. 

"Take my feet and let them be 
Swift and beautiful for thee ; 
Take my voice and let me sing 
Always, only, for my King. 

"Take my moments and my days, 
Let them flow in endless praise ; 
Take my intellect and use 
Every power as thou shalt choose. 

"Take my love; my God, I pour 
At thy feet its treasure store ; 
Take myself, and I will be 
Ever, only, all for thee." 



CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 263 



CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 



11 Love thinketh no evil." 1 Cor. 13:5. 

This chapter has been called " the Psalm of Love." 
It occurs in the midst of a spirited argument respecting 
the fundamental doctrines of our religion. It is like the 
song that was sometimes introduced in the course of a 
gladiatorial struggle. For a time the athletes rested while 
a singer in tinsel robes charmed the multitudes with flow- 
ing melody. Here however it is the athlete himself who, 
resting upon his blade, sings the praises of Love. For 
the writer it was an unusual theme. Had he pronounced 
a panegyric on logic or eloquence, on rhetoric or dogmat- 
ics, it would have been a matter of course ; but behold, 
Paul the dialectician lifts his voice in eulogy of Love. 

He has just been discoursing on charismata, or spir- 
itual gifts. They were necessary to the church in the 
early, formative days. Tongues and interpretation, heal- 
ing and prophecy, these were special endowments vouch- 
safed to the church while she was struggling for a foot- 
hold on earth. It was a blessed thing to be possessed of 
any of these. One of the current questions in the apos- 
tolic church was, " Which is the greatest of the charisma- 
ta?" Paul says, " Covet earnestly the best of them, and 
yet I show unto you a better way." The better way is 
Love. All other gifts are incomparable with this : for 
Love is the fulfilling of the law. It o'ertops all the cha- 



264 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS, 

rismata, outshining and surviving them all. " Now abide 
Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is 
Charity. ,, 

" The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one, 

But the light of the whole world dies with the setting sun : 
The mind has a thousand eyes and the heart but one, 
But the light of the whole life dies when love is done." 

In this disquisition on Love the apostle names fifteen 
distinctive features of it. For our present purpose we 
select but one of these : " Love thinketh no evil." We 
are here advised as to the duty of looking on the bright 
side of character. It is an old proverb, " Faults are thick 
where love is thin." If we walk in the " better way" we 
shall not hastily impute evil, or put a wrong construction 
on well-meant words, or misunderstand motive or suspect 
the sincerity of those around us. If we walk in the " bet- 
ter way " we shall not gossip or backbite or give place to 
a censorious spirit. As far as possible we shall speak 
favorably of our neighbors ; and as to their errors, unless 
a definite purpose is to be answered by an exposure, we 
shall prefer not to mention them. 

This is not to say that love is blind to iniquity or slow, 
on occasion, to reprove it. The most scathing denuncia- 
tion that ever was heard, " Woe unto you, scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites, how shall ye escape the damnation 
of hell !" fell from the lips of Incarnate Love. You re- 
member how Hannah Dustin, held as a prisoner by the 
Indians in a little island of the Merrimac, rose in the mid- 
dle of the night while her savage guards were sleeping, 
gazed on the faces of her children bound and reserved to 
death, then drew a tomahawk from the girdle of a sleep- 
ing brave as gently as if she were plucking a feather from 
the wing of a sleeping dove, and passing around the circle 
fiercely brained one after another until ten lay dead. It 



CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 265 

was love that nerved her arm, it was love that kindled the 
fire in her eyes. In like manner he who walks in the 
" better way " will be aggressive for the public good, will 
not hesitate to denounce evil in high places and low places, 
will " cry aloud and spare not." He who loves the youth 
of this city will, by the token of that love, make war un- 
ceasing on the dives and dramshops and all strongholds 
of iniquity. Love is* the most fierce and fearless of the 
graces. It hates evil, and, for love of souls, it leaves noth- 
ing undone to destroy it. Because it loves the sinner it 
hates the sin and can make no allowance for or compro- 
mise with it. 

But love has nothing in common with a censorious 
spirit. An habitual fault-finder is disqualified for the role 
of a reformer. Love and fault-finding are at constant 
variance. Love puts the best construction on everything 
it sees. It thinketh no evil. Let us note some of the 
reasons why we should as far as possible speak well of 
our fellow-men. 

I. It is Christlike. How sympathetic and gracious 
and helpful he ever was ! He had a kind word for the 
magdalen, a pitying glance for the dying thief. In one 
of the apocryphal Gospels it is related that a mad dog hav- 
ing been slain in one of the streets of Jerusalem, while the 
bystanders were thrusting it with their feet and finding 
themselves at a loss for epithets, they saw Jesus coming. 
His habit of kind speaking was proverbial. " Now," said 
they, " let us hearken what he will say of this despicable 
thing." He stood looking on in silence for a moment, 
then said, " His teeth are like pearls." Was anything lost 
in speaking thus graciously ? Would anything have been 
gained by another foot- thrust ? And why, beloved in 
Christ, should we not follow in his steps, passing kindly 
judgment as far as possible upon all ? 



266 CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 

II. Consider our ignorance. Who are we that we 
should assume to know what passes in a human breast ? 
How little we understand the conditions, the environment, 
the sore temptations, of those who fall into sin. 

" O ye wha are sae guid yourseP, 

Sae pious and sae holy, 
Ye Ve nought to do but mark and tell 

Your neebor's fauts and folly ; 
Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill, 

Supplied wi' store o' water, 
The heaped happer 's ebbing still, 

And still the clap plays clatter. 

" Then gently scan your brother man, 

Still gentler sister woman ; 
Though each may gang a kennin' wrang, 

To step aside is human. 
One point must still be greatly dark, 

The moving why they do it ; 
And just as lamely can ye mark 

How far perhaps they rue it. 

"Who made the heart, 'tis He alone 

Decidedly can try us ; 
He knows each chord — its various tone, 

Each spring — its various bias : 
Then at the balance let 's be mute ; 

We never can adjust it ; 
What 's done we partly may compute, 

But know not what's resisted." 

We speak of justice, but what do we know of it? 
" Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay." How 
many and lamentable are our mistakes whenever we 
undertake to administer justice. We sometimes try 
offenders by lynch law and hang them up at eventide 
only to discover before break-of-day that we have hung the 
wrong man. And, alas, it is too late to cut him down. 



CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 267 

The ruin is done. Of justice we know little or nothing. 
Let us leave that to an omniscient God. Our function is 
with mercy. That falls measurably within our sphere of 
knowledge, and we are safe to administer it. But to speak 
as if we were sitting on the wool-sack is to be vastly pre- 
sumptuous. It is falling into the error of Phaeton who 
sought, unskilled, to drive the chariot of the sun. 

III. We work incalculable injury by our uncharitable 
treatment of others. There are people who would not 
prick their neighbors with a bodkin, yet do not hesitate, 
as Swift says, to 

"Convey a libel with a frown, 
And wink a reputation down." 

They would not steal a farthing, but rob their neighbors 
without scruple of that which is better than life. 

" Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls. 

Who steals my purse steals trash ; 't is something, nothing ; 
'T was mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
But he that filches from me my good name 
Robs me of that which not enriches him 
And makes me poor indeed." 

It is related that when the martyr Taylor was dying at 
the stake one of the bystanders cast a flaming torch which 
struck his eyes and blinded them "and brake his face that 
the blood ran down his visage." This was base, coward- 
ly, brutal beyond words. But it was not more base, more 
brutal, or more cowardly than to injure a man in his repu- 
tation, to put him to an open shame by blackening his 
honor. This is the very climax of inhumanity ; baseness 
can no further go. , 

IV. We live in glass houses. The old proverb, " Peo- 
ple who live in glass houses should not throw stones/' had 
its origin in our Master's words respecting the woman 



268 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

taken in adultery. The Rabbis had dragged her up the 
temple steps and cast her upon the pavement, saying, 
" Moses in the lawcommandeth that such shall be stoned, 
but what sayest thou?'' He stooped for a moment in 
silence and seemed to be writing on the marble floor, then 
quietly said, " Let him that is without blame among you 
cast the first stone." Why do n't they throw ? O master 
of Israel with the broad phylacteries, so circumspectly 
pious, cast thou a stone at her ! O venerable Sanhedrist, 
having the law written upon thy frontlets, against whom 
no breath of calumny has ever come, why dost thou falter? 
Cast thou a stone at her ! O illustrious priest, minister at 
God's altar lo, these many years, famed for thy immacu- 
lateness, why is thy face flushed with sudden crimson, and 
wherefore dost thou not cast a stone ? It is written that 
they which heard the Master's word, being convicted by 
their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at 
the eldest even unto the last. 

We are none of us any better than the law requires, 
none of us any better than we ought to be. We have all 
sinned and come short of the divine glory ; and, strange to 
tell, the faults which we are most prone to criticise in oth- 
ers are those which are most deeply seated in ourselves. 
Tell me the general drift of a man's aspersions and I will 
show you his darling sin. It would be prudent in us all 
to take advantage of that provision which in courts of jus- 
tice excuses a witness from testifying against a culprit 
when to do so would incriminate himself. It takes a rogue 
to catch a rogue. All captious criticism is in the nature 
of State's evidence. " Why beholdest thou the mote that 
is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that 
is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, 
Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold a 
beam is in thine own eye ? Thou hypocrite, first cast out 



CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 269 

the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see 
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." 

V. We are on our way to Judgment. And here we 
are making- the rule which will apply to ourselves at that 
great day. " Judge not/' said the Master, " that ye be not 
judged. For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be 
judged, and with what measure ye mete it shall be meas- 
ured to you again." We may have what we will at the 
Great Assize, mercy or justice. If we here minister justice 
it will there be ministered unto us. But, blessed be 
God, heaven is full of mercy, if we will have it. The 
Moslems say that two spirits are set to guard the actions 
of every man. At night they fly up to heaven and re- 
port to the recording angel. The one says, " He hath 
wrought this good, O angel ! Write it ten times !" The 
other says, " He hath wrought this evil ; but forbear, O 
angel, yet seven hours, in order that he may repent !" It 
is true that God delighteth in mercy. But if we want it 
we must here accord it. 

How otherwise may we offer the prayer, " Forgive us 
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against 
us " ? How otherwise can we with heart and understand- 
ing sing, 

" Teach me to feel another's woe, 
To hide the fault I see ; 
The mercy I to others show, 
That mercy show to me." 

VI. In dealing ungraciously with others we lose the 
blessed opportunity of kindness. There is no telling what 
good may be done by a word of sympathy and helpful- 
ness, one of those " words in due season" which are like 
apples of gold in pictures of silver. 

In the prison at New Bedford there is a man serving 
out a life sentence who some years ago had a strange ex- 



270 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

perience. He had previously been regarded as one of the 
most desperate and dangerous inmates. He had planned 
outbreaks and mutinies and been repeatedly punished in 
vain. His heart was full of bitterness. But one day in June 
a party of strangers came to visit the institution, an old man 
with several ladies and one little girl. It happened that 
this prisoner had just been assigned for some misdemeanor 
to the menial task of scrubbing the corridor. The ward- 
en, leading the visitors about, saw him, sulky and morose, 
at the top of the stairway. " Jim," he called, " come and 
carry this little girl up." The convict scowled and hesi- 
tated. The little girl at the foot of the stairway held out 
her arms and said, " If you will, I '11 kiss you." He looked 
at her seriously a moment, then slowly came down, and 
lifting her upon his shoulders as tenderly as any father 
could have done, carried her to the upper corridor. She 
raised her face. He gravely stooped and kissed it, then 
returned to his task. And they say at the New Bedford 
jail that he has never been the same man since that day. 
The kindness of that child in some way transformed his 
life. 

The meanest of proverbs is, De mortuis nil nisi bo- 
num. It were even better to say, " Speak only good of 
the living." A word of encouragement to a living man is 
worth the best Latin epitaph that ever was carved on a 
granite shaft. A blossom put into a living hand is better 
than the treasures of all the conservatories laid on a mound 
in Greenwood. This was the substance of our Lord's 
teaching when he said of the woman who broke the ala- 
baster-box of ointment, " Let her alone. She hath anoint- 
ed me aforetime for my burial." Oh for more of the 
aforetime anointing ! Oh for more of kindness towards 
those who are bearing the heat and burden of life's busy 
day! 



CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL. 27 1 

There are some of you who remember Blondin. In 
making his dangerous journey along the wire stretched 
below the Falls of Niagara he sometimes carried a man 
upon his back. The shores were lined with spectators. 
Did they shout and applaud when they saw him poised 
above the abyss? Did they loudly reprove his folly? 
Did they obtrude unnecessary counsel upon him ? If he 
stumbled and seemed to lose his balance, wavering for an 
instant, what then? Ah, they held their breath! Their 
very hearts stood still ! Every one of us on life's journey 
bears his burden, oftentimes so heavy as to tax his utmost 
strength, along a path as narrow and dangerous as the 
sword-blade in the dream of Mirza. Every one of us 
needs the kindly word, the helping hand. Oh for the 
spirit of charity ! All the graces have done virtuously, 
but thou, O Charity, excellest them all ! 



272 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



ON THE STORMY SEA. 



"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great 
waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in 
the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, 
which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the 
heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soulis melt- 
ed because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like 
a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry 
unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of 
their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves 
thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; 
so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men 
would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful 
works to the children of men !" Psa. 107:23-31. 

In 1830 the ship " Lady Holland " on her way to India 
struck on a bar stretching out from the Cape of Good 
Hope, and after making a brave struggle went to pieces. 
All the passengers were saved. Among them was Alex- 
ander Duff, on his way to missionary work among the 
Hindoos. Everything that he possessed in the World had 
gone down with the ship, including a library of eight hun- 
dred volumes. As he walked along the shore drenched 
and discouraged he caught sight of a book which had 
been washed in by the waves. It was a Bible, the sole 
remnant of his precious library. He opened it at this 
" Traveller's Psalm " and read, " Oh that men would praise 
the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to 
the children of men !" The words made a profound im- 
pression upon him and were an inspiration to all his sub- 



ON THE STORI.1Y SEA. 273 

sequent life. He knew thereafter many periods of trial 
and difficulty, but never one of despondency. When the 
winds were fierce his heart recurred to the Traveller's 
Psalm. It may be that there are some here whose hearts 
are sore and weary. If so, God give them comfort out of 
his blessed Word and help them to join us in singing, 
" Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and 
for his wonderful works to the children of men !" 

Life is here portrayed in six picturesque panels. 

First: The ship sails forth. As it is written, "They 
that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great 
waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders 
in the deep." 

Our life is a voyage. We all go down to the sea in 
ships, to a life of mystery and danger, of glorious privi- 
lege and responsibility. We set out with high hopes and 
splendid aspirations. The skies are fair, the winds favor- 
able, the waters smooth. We look down into the clear 
depths and dream dreams ; we gaze up into the overarch- 
ing blue and see visions. Our hearts are full of happiness 
as of new wine, Ah it is a glorious thing to live ! Praise 
God for the exuberance of youth, for bright days, for life's 
commencement under the rainbow arch of promise ! Far 
be it from us to reprove the young for their merry-making. 
Rejoice, O young man, but remember ! Be mindful of 
the sublime things. Be mindful of immortality and of the 
Judgment ! Let your gladness be as sweet and harmless 
as the laughter of a child. Rejoice ! but remember that 
when life's pleasures are over there are sweeter pleasures 
at God's right hand for evermore. 

Far yonder is a fleck on the horizon — a mere bit of 
floating fleece, a puff of rising mist. Does it portend trou- 
ble ? What matter ? What matter if the heart be right 
and the conscience clean ? Yet look to the sheets, the 

18 



274 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

cordage, the anchors ! It is well to be ready for whatever 
may chance upon the open sea. 

Second : The wind rises. As it is written, " He com- 
mandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the 
waves thereof." 

Has it come to you already ? Has there been a turn 
in your prosperity? Are things going wrong? Is it 
sickness, bereavement, financial stringency ? Are the 
winds whistling through the cordage ? Fear not ! God 
holds the trident; the winds are in his fist. Trouble 
springeth not up out of the ground. God reigns. God 
rules and overrules. There are some anchors that will 
hold in the fiercest stress of Euroclydon. One is the 
Wisdom of God. There is nothing that happens without 
his cognizance. No storm comes haphazard. God un- 
derstands the end from the beginning ; and he makes no 
mistakes. Another is God's Goodness. He doth not afflict 
willingly. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and 
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. But never too 
much. " He sitteth as a refiner of silver." The fire shall 
never burn too fiercely. Let him but see his image on the 
molten metal and it sufficeth. Pain and trouble must 
work together for our good. And another is God's Om- 
nipotence. He is able in our behalf to do whatsoever he 
will ; the opposing spirits of earth and hell cannot thwart 
him. 

" The Lord our God is clothed with might, 
The winds obey his will ; 
He speaks, and in his heavenly height 
The rolling sun stands still. 

" His voice sublime is heard afar, 
In distant peals it dies; 
He yokes the whirlwind to his car 
And sweeps the tioubled skies. 






ON THE STORMY SEA. 275 

" Howl, winds of night, your force combine ; 
Without his high behest 
Ye shall not in the mountain pine 
Disturb the sparrow's nest." 

Third: The sailors are at their wits' end. " Their 
soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and 
stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end." 

In the margin it is, "All their wisdom is swallowed up." 
Then there is hope ! For when I am weak, then am I 
strong. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most 
gladly let me glory in my infirmities, that the power of 
Christ may rest upon me. No man is ever ready to be 
saved until his own wisdom is all swallowed up. The 
prodigal was content to abide in the far country until his 
last farthing was spent, his last garment pawned, and he a 
menial in a swine-field, coveting the husks which the 
swine did eat. Then visions of home came before him — 
the riches of his father's house, the loaded table, the 
laughter, the merry-making. " Why should I perish of 
hunger?" he cried. " I will arise and go to my father !" 
Jacob was never submissive to the divine purposes con- 
cerning him until one night, alone, he wrestled with a su- 
pernatural Athlete, and fell down crippled, worsted, but 
victorious. He triumphed through his weakness, and was 
blessed in his humility as he never could have been in 
self-conscious power. The dying thief was not salvable 
until he found himself at his wits' end ; his feet nailed, so 
that they could run no more into evil ; his hands nailed, 
so that they could no more be stretched forth in his own 
behalf. Then, dying and desperate, he prayed, " Lord, 
remember me !" 

It is related of William Brown, who died at Smithfield, 
that at the last moment, while the flames were consuming 
him, he, looking for a friendly face and finding none, 



2?6 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

asked one of his priestly executioners to pray for him. 
" I will no more pray for thee," was the answer, " than 
for a mangy dog." Then the martyr, being at his wit's 
end, cried, " Son of God, I have none beside thee ; shine 
thou upon me !" And at that moment, tradition says, the 
sun shone full upon his face, and so remained until he 
yielded up the ghost. Oh blessed are they whose wis- 
dom is all swallowed up, and w T ho as to self-righteousness 
and self-confidence are utterly at their wits' end. For 
man's extremity is God's opportunity. 

Fourth : They are on their knees. " Then they cry 
unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out 
of their distresses." 

Our Lord said that men ought always to pray and not 
to faint. But alas, men do not always pray. They will 
not. But they pray when the storm breaks. There are 
men in this company, doubtless, who have not prayed to- 
day, who have not offered a prayer perhaps for years. 
But if the death-angel were to walk through this aisle and 
lay his hand upon them, saying, " The hour is come !" 
every one would fall upon his knees in an instant, crying, 
" God, have mercy !" 

And, strange to tell, God is willing to hear even the 
cry of desperation. He is of great loving-kindness and 
forbearance. For some men prayer is their vital breath, 
their native air. To others it is like the bell in the coal- 
mine, used only in time of danger. If the cord be pulled 
it says to the watcher at the shaft's mouth, " Fire-damp ! 
Come !" So is the prayer that ascends to God in sudden 
exigencies. How many there are who, having forgotten 
God in their prosperity, remember him when driven in 
flight like a partridge upon the mountains. Then they 
pray and God hears. " This poor man cried, and the 
Lord heard and saved him out of all his trouble." 



ON THE STORMY SEA. 277 

" There is an eye that never sleeps 
Beneath the wing of night ; 
There is an ear that never shuts 
When sink the beams of light. 

" There is an arm that never tires 
When human strength gives way ; 
There is a love that never fails 
When earthly loves decay. 

" That eye is fixed on seraph throngs ; 
That arm upholds the sky ; 
That ear is filled with angel songs ; 
That love is throned on high. 

" But there 's a power which man can wield 
When mortal aid is vain, 
That eye, that arm, that love to reach, 
That listening ear to gain. 

11 That power is prayer, which soars on high, 
Through Jesus, to the throne, 
And moves the hand which moves the world. 
To bring salvation down." 

Fifth: The storm is assuaged. " He maketh the storm 
a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they 
glad because they be quiet." 

How calm it is whenever Christ lifts his hands over 
the raging sea. How pains and sorrows flee at his word, 
Peace, be still ! 

The rule, after all, is fair weather. The storm, rage it 
never so fiercely, will soon be spent. Our " light afflic- 
tions " are " but for a moment." Weeping may endure 
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. How many- 
will lie down on sleepless beds to-night. Their nerves 
will be tingling, their hearts will be aching. Oh the pain 
of insomnia ! Their griefs and troubles come like ghosts, 
gigantic in the night-time, shaking their gaunt fingers at 
them. They cannot sleep. They toss from side to side 



278 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

and moan, " Would God it were morning !" They rise 
and sit by the window, their hot eyes cooled by the grate- 
ful night air. Yonder the last star is fading. The first 
beams of the sun appear. A golden glory is shining 
through the gray. Arrows of crimson light shoot up into 
the heavens. The mists are flying. The birds begin to 
sing. The flush of the morning now suffuses all. The 
dew is glistening on the grass and " jocund Day stands 
tiptoe on the mountain-tops." It always comes. There 
is no night without a dawn. This is the gracious ordi- 
nance of both nature and grace. Weeping may endure 
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 

Sixth and finally : The ship sails in. " So he bring- 
eth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would 
praise him for his goodness and for his wonderful works 
to the children of men !" 

On April 2, 15 13, Ponce de Leon, cruising in the Gull 
of Mexico in search of an imaginary island which he was 
to christen Bintini when he should discover it, came in 
sight of the mainland. Never had a vision of such glo- 
rious beauty greeted his eyes. The land was in its vernal 
splendor. The melody of birds filled the air. The per- 
fume of gardens floated far out to sea. The palm-trees 
were waving their fronds as if in welcome. Eight days 
he cruised along these shores, and then landing, planted 
the Red Cross banner. And he christened the land not 
Bimini but Florida — the Land of Flowers. But what, 
think you, will the shores of Canaan be like when, after 
a stormy voyage, we by God's grace come sailing in ? 
Oh sweet music of angels and archangels, greeting us 
from afar! Oh rare odors of the King's gardens! Oh 
light of the great throne flooding and suffusing all ! Oh 
welcome voices of saints triumphant whom here we loved 
and lost a while ! In that day the sorest troubles of the 



ON THE STORMY SEA. 279 

earthly life will seem insignificant as we look back upon 
them. We shall understand then what the apostle meant 
when he called our afflictions " light " and spoke of them 
as " enduring but for a moment." It will be in our hearts 
to bless God for all the storms and the trials. Our song 
will be, " Oh that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" 

" Safe home, safe home in port ! 

Rent cordage, shattered deck, 
Torn sails, provisions short, 

And only not a wreck ; 
But oh the joy upon the shore 
To tell our voyage perils o'er !" 

Not long ago, on entering my study I found a man 
awaiting me with his face buried in his hands. He looked 
up and said, " I am in desperate trouble ; I must have 
help or die." A letter has recently come to me, undated 
and unsigned, beginning with these words, " My heart is 
breaking ; pray for me." It may be that there is some one 
in this company in desperate trouble — some one whose 
heart is breaking. It may be that there is a wanderer 
here who from a pleasant home, a mother's love, a family 
circle of prayer, has gone away into the far country and 
wasted his substance. Perhaps there is one whose soul is 
troubled with " a certain fearful looking for of judgment." 
The heart knoweth its own bitterness. Each of us bears 
his own burden. But, friend, whatever yours may be, 
God is here and ready to help. Earth has no sorrow that 
heaven cannot heal. The light from the Cross, where the 
kind Father has manifested his love towards all the sor- 
rowing and the lost, falls helpfully and graciously over us. 
Let us believe in Him. Let us believe that He is and 
that he is the rewarder of all that diligently seek him. 
Let us believe that having spared not his only-begotten 



280 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

and well-beloved Son, he will with him freely give us all 
things. Is thy heart sore, my brother ? Has the storm 
burst upon thee ? Look to the heavens ! God is our 
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, 
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
though the mountains shake with the swellings thereof. 
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the 
city of God, the Holy Place of the tabernacles of the Most 
High. God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved : 
God shall help her and that right early. The Lord of 
Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. 



THE SILENT ARCHITECT. 28 1 



THE 

SILENT ARCHITECT. 



" And the house was built of stone made ready before it was brought 
thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool 
of iron heard in the house while it was in building." 

1 Kings 6:7. 

When the children of Israel had ended their wander- 
ings and were settled in the land of promise it would nat- 
urally occur to them at once to build a temple in honor of 
the God who had guided them for forty years by his pil- 
lar of cloud. But for many reasons this was not to be. 
The times were inauspicious and the people were unpre- 
pared for it. At first they were employed in driving out 
the aboriginal tribes, and it was not in the nature of things 
that temple walls should rise amid the turmoil of strife. 
Then came the period of the judges. But who among 
them was fitted for the task? Gideon, marshalling the 
clans of Abi-ezra with his trumpet blast ? Jephthah drag- 
ging the vanquished princes of the children of Ammon at 
his chariot wheels ? Samson shouting out his fierce bat- 
tle song? Shamgar with his ox-goad? Nay, all these 
were bloody men. Then came the period of the kings. 
But where among them was the architect ? Saul reading 
battle omens in the witch's cave ? David girding on his 
armor for Baal-perazim ? During these reigns the air 
was laden with the stench of carcasses and the roads 



282 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

were red with bloody footprints. It did indeed occur to 
David that he ought not to dwell in a house of cedar while 
the Ark of the Lord was within curtains. But when he 
purposed to build a house for God that should be exceed- 
ingly magnifical, his plan was interrupted by the divine 
voice saying, " Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell 
in, because thou hast been a man of war." The holy fabric 
must be raised by bloodless hands in quiet days. At 
length, five hundred years after the exodus, in the reign 
of Solomon, there came a season of absolute rest. " In the 
fourth year of his reign were the foundations of the house 
laid and in the eleventh year was the house finished 
throughout in all parts thereof. So he was seven years 
in building it." Never were grander preparations, never 
a more magnificent temple — simple, beautiful, from mas- 
sive foundation stones to fine-twined curtains. And all 
was divinely planned. The basilica of St. Peter's bears 
the impress of the mind of Michael Angelo ; St. Paul's at 
London of the mind of Sir Christopher Wren ; but the 
temple on Zion was projected and reared by the Architect 
of the universe ; and in wondrous beauty it was not un- 
worthy of him. During the period of its erection there 
was peace throughout the land. Silently, majestically, its 
walls rose towards heaven "without the sound of hammer 
or of axe," for its stones had been chiselled at the quarry 
and its beams had been fitted to their places amid the 
forests of Lebanon. There was no busy hum or clamor, 
no echo of implements among the rising timbers, no voice 
of the mason calling to the carpenter, no running to and 
fro. It was like a grand Sabbath service. 

"No workman's steel, no ponderous axes swung ; 
Like some tall pine the noiseless fabric sprung." 

And this is God's method everywhere — in nature, in his- 
tory, and in grace. He walks with stately steppings. 



THE SILENT ARCHITECT. 283 

He performs his tasks in quiet patience as if ever mindful 
that the eternal years are his. 

I. In nature. When he created the heavens and the 
earth there was heard no sound of hammer or axe. The 
slow revolving ages, the six grand epochs with their alter- 
nate lights and shadows, graduated one into the other, 
marking off his successive creative acts. 

We speak of the-creative fiat as if God did, with an 
audible voice, call out of nothing the things which are. 

" He said, Let there be light ! 
Grim Darkness felt His might 
And fled away. 

Then startled seas and mountains cold 
Shone forth all clad in blue and gold 
And cried, 'T is d;iy ! 't is day !" 

Not so : there was no audible voice. The fiat is but a 
figure of speech. In fact the beginning of Light may have 
been in the trembling of a dim electric force occasioned 
by atomic friction. Long aeons may have passed before 
the first beams of the heavenly luminaries shone through 
the lifting clouds of vapor. Slowly the darkness faded 
into twilight, the twilight into dawn, until at length the 
earth was flooded with the splendor of day. 

And God said, " Let the dry land appear." He might 
indeed have wrought it with a word. He might indeed 
have summoned the continents and islands as a captain 
calls the muster-roll of his army ; and they would have 
come crowding to meet him, shouldering each other aside 
like the lost titans in Dante's Sea of Ice. In fact, how- 
ever, the beginning of the dry land was in the slow up- 
heavals and crumblings and noiseless convulsions of prim- 
itive chaos, What if a million years were needed for the 
laying of a single stratum ? The splintered obelisks and 
pinnacles of the Alps have been wrought by the imper- 



284 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

ceptible might of the atmosphere, by the slow action oi 
frost and sun. God might have tossed them up with his 
right arm. But to him a thousand years are as a single 
day. Not the avalanche, but the glacier that moves so 
slowly as to seem immovable, is the apt figure of his stu- 
pendous power. " Hast thou not known, hast thou not 
heard, that the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of 
the earth, fainteth not neither is weary?" He is never 
restless, never in haste. In the depths of the ocean there 
are numberless infinitesimal creatures at work, each living 
but a day and when it dies leaving a tiny shell as its mon- 
ument. Generations come and go, accomplishing their 
tasks with only the patient eyes of God and the sleep- 
less stars to watch them. Centuries pass by, incalcula- 
ble aeons; and then from the bottom of the sea there 
emerges the outline of a coral reef. Thus God makes 
the dry land appear. There is no sound of hammer or 
axe. But what a temple to the glory of the Ancient of 
Days ! 

In the processes of nature there are three factors : 
First: Force, an infinitely impressive something which 
defies definition. Force is " whatever sets matter in mo- 
tion." But the word " whatever " suggests the problem. 
An apple falls from the bough. We say it falls by the 
force of gravitation. But what is that? A tree is shat- 
tered by a bolt of lightning ; we call it electrical force ; 
but what is that? A mushroom grows up in the night; 
the power within is vital force ; but what is that ? The 
fact is obvious ; but who shall explain it ? 

Second: Law. Force works through law. We are 
compassed about by law. With a silent presence it en- 
velopes us. We call for a miracle, a sign with a sound. 
But a miracle is not above law or beyond it. A miracle 
is simply force working through law without the inter- 



THE SILENT ARCHITECT. 285 

vention of second causes. The miracle of Cana is as silent 
as the distillations of the vineyard. When Joseph feeds 
the multitude from the storehouses of Egypt, the outrun- 
ners announce him and the people hail him " Zaphenath- 
Paneah ! O Saviour of the world." But when God goes 
forth to feed the nations of the earth there are no acclama- 
tions. Not a seed germinates except as he guards and 
fosters it. The fields grow yellow under his care. He 
sends the loaded wains to the waiting granaries. He 
spreads our tables everywhere. But not a voice declares 
his goodness until the grace is said, " For what we now 
receive the Lord make us truly thankful." 

Third: Mind. Here we touch the argument from 
design. That the forces which operate through law are 
superintended by an infinite Intellect is attested by the 
adjustment of all things to their uses: the eye to seeing, 
the eagle's wing to mounting aloft, the nightingale's 
throat to melody. If I place an aeolian harp in my win- 
dow I can tell from the result whether or no an intellect 
controls it. If it produces only a mingling of sweet 
sounds without a theme, I say, The wind blows through 
it ; but if there be a theme in the melody, I say, A human 
hand has touched it. In like manner as I look abroad in 
nature I behold everywhere the convincing proofs of a 
superintending intellect — Anima Mundi, the Soul of the 
World. This God does not cry aloud nor lift up his 
voice, but in impressive silence he manifests himself. How 
noiselessly the world passes over from summer to winter, 
from seedtime to harvest. Who ever heard the open- 
ing of a rose-bud or the falling of snowflake ? In 
the phenomena of nature the rule is quiet. If we travel 
on the railway at the rate of sixty miles an hour, our ears 
are filled with the noise of hissing steam and rumbling 
wheels, and we are in momentary dread of burning axles, 



286 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

derailment, or collision : we cling to the seats in terror of 
life. But we are living on a world that rolls through space 
at the rate of sixty thousand miles an hour; yet in the midst 
of this tremendous whirl we can hear an infant's wail, the 
singing of a bird, the beating of our hearts ! 

II. In history. We speak of Providence. By this, 
again, we understand a force working through law under 
the supervision of an infinite Mind. All the world 's a 
stage indeed. Tragedies are being enacted everywhere ; 
but no crier reads the prologue, no chorus explains be- 
tween the acts, no bell rings down the curtain. The pro- 
foundest episodes in the life of men and nations are with- 
out scenic effect. 

We are accustomed to speak of the epochs of history. 
There are none ; or, in any case, the real epochs are not 
those which are marked by uproar and confusion and gar- 
ments rolled in blood. The landing of Caesar with his hosts 
in Britain was not so significant an event as the landing 
of St. Augustine bearing a white Christ on a silver cross. 
The marching forth to the Crusades of Richard Coeur 
de Lion was not so important in its ultimate issues as the 
quiet demand of Stephen Langton in the meadow at Run- 
nymede. The victories of Drake upon the high seas were 
of less real moment than the embarking of a few pilgrims 
from Delft Haven in search of religious freedom. The 
charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava was not so wor- 
thy of immortality in song as the play of a bare-legged lad 
in an English village, who at about that time was making 
clay engines furnished with hemlock sticks for pipes. The 
best history of Anglo-Saxon civilization is Green's " His- 
tory of the English People," which is constructed on the 
assumption that the victories of peace are more renowned 
than those of war. 

The most memorable event that ever occurred on earth, 



THE SILENT ARCHITECT. 287 

out of which flowed the issues of universal life and immor- 
tality, was celebrated only by a mother's cradle-song and 
the angels' anthem, " Glory to God in the highest !" The 
earthly life and ministry of Jesus were characterized by the 
same absence of display. Their theatre was a carpenter's 
shop, an upper chamber, an accursed tree. No hosts 
were marshalled around him, no banners waved above 
him. It had been prophesied, " He shall not cry nor lift 
up his voice in the streets." In his death he was led as a 
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers 
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Living and dying 
he was true to his name, Shiloh, Prince of Peace. His 
church in like manner — fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
and terrible as an army with banners — has conquered thus 
far by a silent force as irresistible as her Lord's right arm. 
She wields no sword but the sword of the Spirit, sheds no 
blood but her own, rears no standard but the Red Cross ; 
yet with these she has triumphed over thrones and do- 
minions, banns and interdicts, the violence of flame, the 
Prince of Darkness, the gates of hell. All along the pages 
of history is written this parable, " The Kingdom of Heav- 
en is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took 
and sowed in his field ; which indeed is the least of all 
seeds ; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, 
and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and 
lodge in the branches thereof." As the seed germinates 
in silence, and as all the benignant influences of air and 
earth and water are made to minister unto it, so the 
Church, which is God's Kingdom among men, is fostered 
by his care, and will of a certainty in due time fill the earth 
with his glory as the waters cover the deep. But this 
kingdom cometh not with observation. No man can say, 
Lo here! or, Lo there! The victories of truth and right- 
eousness are celebrated with less of pomp and pageantry 



288 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

than was a triumph of a petty centurion in the ancient 
times. 

III. In the soul of ma?i. Here we are in the province 
of grace. By grace we understand, again, a force inscru- 
table, working through law mysterious, under the super- 
intendence of a Mind Infinite. The beginning of the Chris- 
tian life is commonly without observation. It is true that 
Saul of Tarsus was felled to the earth, blinded by a sun- 
burst, and addressed by a voice from heaven. But even 
of this case it is written, " Those that were with him saw 
the light but heard not the voice." The operation of the 
Spirit in the human heart is not with violence. He com- 
eth down as rain upon the mown grass. To the majority 
of believers their passing out of darkness into the light is 
as when a traveller crosses the tropics ; he cannot mark 
the instant. We are not scourged but wooed into the 
divine arms. "I have drawn thee," he says, "with the 
cords of a man ;" that is, with leading-strings. 

" I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
' Come unto me and rest ; 
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
Thy head upon my breast/ 

" I came to Jesus as I was — 
Weary and worn and sad ; 
I found in him a resting-place, 
And he has made me glad." 

And all the subsequent life of the Christian is passed 
under the same gentle influence. Our sanctification is 
like the shining light that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day. As of old, the Lord is not in the wind 
that rends in pieces the rocks, nor in the earthquake, nor 
in the fire, but in the still small voice. To the beasts of 
the field and cattle and creeping things, to the rolling 
worlds, the lightning, the tempest, he says, Go ! and they 



THE SILENT ARCHITECT. 289 

obey him. But to his children he says, " Come now, let 
us reason together." Thus he stoops to conquer. The 
symbol of his Spirit is a brooding dove. Our gracious 
God would build up our souls into temples fit for his in- 
dwelling ; but he would build without the sound of ham- 
mer or of axe. 

He comes to us this day, not blowing a trumpet at our 
gates, but waiting upon our scant courtesy. I pray you, 
grieve him not. .The fears and relentings, the hopes that 
are stirring within you, are kindled by his Spirit. At this 
moment a slender thread is let down from heaven along 
which runs the electric current of everlasting life. You 
may put it aside if you will — alas, how easily ! Or you 
may take hold of it and be thrilled and quickened as by a 
breath from the flaming lips of God. O Thou that stand- 
est waiting, thy locks wet with the morning dew, waiting 
in silence patiently at our closed doors, enter this day and 
spread thy table of wine and manna — the wine of consola- 
tion, the hidden manna of thy peace — and sup thou with 
us! 



19 



29O THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



THE TRUE KNIGHT. 



"Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 

2 Tim. 2:3. 

In the year 1094 A. D. a man of dwarfish stature, 
robed and tonsured, might have been seen riding upon an 
ass through the thoroughfares north of the Alps. He had 
been at one time a soldier in the army of Boulogne, but, 
moved with penitence for deeds of blood, had retired to a 
cloister. As time passed rumors came to him of infamous 
deeds wrought by Moslems at the holy sepulchre, and at 
his devotions he fumbled at his rosary as if it were a sword- 
hilt. The passing herald told at the monastery gate how 
Christian pilgrims had been seized and immured in dun- 
geons or sold into a bondage worse than death — whereat 
the old martial passion shot from under his cavernous 
brows. He could endure this life of dreamy devotion no 
longer. Voices came to him from over the sea calling for 
help. He mounted and rode forth. His head and feet 
were bare; in his hand he carried a white Christ on a 
cross. Passing through the hamlets and villages he told 
the story of the Christian captives and of the Lord's sep- 
ulchre. His auditors responded with sobs and groans 
and vehement protestations. " To the rescue !" he cried. 
" Dens vzclt ! It is God's will!" He tore his red scarf 
into cross-shaped fragments, which his followers affixed to 
their breasts. They grew in numbers as he passed from 
town to town until sixty thousand were riding after him. 




THE TRUE KNIGHT. 29 1 

Thus under Peter the Hermit began the Crusades, that 
strange movement in which were enlisted some of the no- 
blest spirits that ever unsheathed a sword. There was 
Robert of Flanders ; there was Tancred the Good ; there 
were St. Louis and Cceur de Lion and Godfrey of Bouil- 
lon and St. Bernard and Blondel the minstrel — the time 
would fail me to tell of the mighty ones who won immor- 
tal fame in the marches and conflicts of those days. 

" Their bones are dust, 
Their good swords rust ; 
Their souls are with the saints, we trust." 

A vindication of the Crusades at every point is not to our 
present purpose ; we have to do with the permanent heri- 
tage they have left us in the name and character of the 
True Knight. His ambition was to be " without fear and 
without reproach" — a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 

For this knight of the olden time was distinctly and 
preeminently a Christian. The initiatory rites of his order 
were celebrated within the sacred confines of the church. 
All night he prayed, and received the sacrament at break 
of day. With the cross upon his bosom and the ori- 
flamme waving above him he went forth singing — 

" Fairest Lord Jesus, 

Ruler of all nature, 
O Thou of God and man the Son, 

Thee will I cherish, 

Thee will I honor, 
Thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown ! 

" Fair are the meadows, 

Fairer still the woodlands, 
Robed in the blooming garb of spring ; 

Jesus is fairer, 

Jesus is purer, 
Who makes the woful heart to sing. 



292 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

"Fair is the sunshine, 

Fairer still the moonlight 
And the twinkling starry host ; 

Jesus shines brighter, 

Jesus shines purer, 
Than all the angels heaven can boast."* 

The character of the true knight is set forth in the 
chivalric star, a star of five points, each representing a 
chivalric grace. To these let us address our thought. 

I. First of knightly qualities is Truth — truth that ex- 
presses itself not merely in ingenuous words but in a char- 
acter of transparent honesty. Its word is esse, non videri; 
to be, not seem to be. For a falsehood may be told with 
a nod or wink, the lifting of the brows or beckoning of 
the hand, as well as in articulate speech. It is much to 
be feared that one of our besetting sins is disingenuous- 
ness. " 'T is as easy as lying," quoth Hamlet. But a 
true man shrinks from every shape and form of it. His 
character is truthfulness itself. When the Commons de- 
manded of Charles I. that to a certain promise he should 
give them his royal word, he answered, " Nay, but I will 
give you somewhat stronger and surer, the word of a 
Christian Knight." 

II. The second of the chivalric graces is Purity. An 
old writer in setting forth the knightly character says 
among other things, " Nothing he cometh upon is to him 
common or unclean, because there is no mordant in his 
nature for an evil thing." This " mordant " was the 
chemical factor used in a dye-vat to make the colors fast. 
It is derived from a Latin word signifying to eat or bite. 
A true man has nothing in him to grasp, to apprehend, to 
appropriate a low or common thing. This is the prime 

;i: This hymn from the German, " Schonster Herr Jesu," sung by 
the Crusaders of the twelfth century, has come into new popularity 
in recent years. 



THE TRUE KNIGHT. 293 

quality of a gentleman. He not merely avoids the grosser 
contacts of impurity ; he shrinks from it with an instinct- 
ive disrelish and repugnance, as the sensitive plant trem- 
bles and withdraws itself from an unfriendly touch. 

III. The third of the manly graces is Courtesy. This 
is something above fine breeding. It is something more 
than common culture. You cannot get it from a " Hand- 
book of Etiquette." Sir Philip Sydney defines it as 
" high thoughts seated in a soul of honor." It is a large 
and manly grace. Its other name is magnanimity. It is 
the going out of soul in a large sympathy towards all. It 
is the finest expression of the Golden Rule. I know not 
where to find a better illustration of it than in the case of 
two rough sailors who were once walking in a seaside 
town. No one would have taken them for gentlemen by 
any test of outward garb or graceful carriage. As they 
rolled along on their sea legs, gazing and wondering, a 
thing happened which suddenly fastened their attention. 
A funeral came down the street — four bearers carrying 
the dead upon a bier. There were no mourners, no 
friends or kindred. The sailors looked into each oth- 
er's faces, silently read each other's thoughts, then 
stepped into the street, fell into line, and went following 
after the friendless dead. That was the prompting of true 
courtesy ; and rude and homely as those sailors seemed, 
they were possessed of the truest instincts of gentlemen. 

IV. A fourth of these manly graces is Patience. It 
is indeed the drudge of the graces, the Cinderella of them 
all. And yet there is something strong and admirable in 
it. We think of it as a grace for womankind, for sick 
people and prisoners. It is, however, no less becoming 
in a true and stalwart man. To " endure hardness " is the 
part of a good soldier. The field of battle never knew a 
braver man than General Grant; in the field of politics he 



294 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

showed himself a wise counsellor and statesmanlike ruler ; 
but his character shines brightest of all, it seems to me, in 
the story of those dreadful days when he sat waiting for 
the King of Terrors. He wrote his " Memoirs " while 
the anguish of an incurable disease was tearing at every 
nerve and sinew ; but no murmur escaped him. Ah, that 
was patience ! And at last, having completed his work, 
he relinquished his pen as he had laid down his sword in 
calm and gracious submission to the higher Will. 

V. The fifth knightly grace is Valor, In Peter's cat- 
alogue of the marks of Christian character he begins 
in this wise, "Add to your faith virtue." The virtue 
here referred to is the Latin virtus, which meant the 
courage of a Roman soldier. It is cognate with vir y 
which was the title of a nobleman of those early times. 
" Add, therefore/' said Peter, " to your faith the courage 
of a soldier." And Paul, in his order of equipment, urges 
the importance of the same unflinching spirit : " Finally, 
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of 
his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may 
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we 
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principal- 
ities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of 
this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye 
may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done 
all, to stand." 

Let us be grateful that the days of war are drawing to 
a close. It is much to be doubted if the great nations will 
ever again be brought into serious collision. The means 
which are being used to make war effective to the utmost 
are reasonably certain to make it impossible. When ex- 
plosives are brought to such a degree of perfection that 
with a few score of dynamite bombs a whole army may 



THE TRUE KNIGHT. 295 

be annihilated or the mightiest of fortresses lifted into the 
air, it is incredible that the nations should much longer 
use such methods for settling their disputes. And why, 
indeed, at this stage of civilization, should it be deemed 
more proper for nations to resort to the barbarous arbit- 
rament of battle than for men to settle their differences by 
fisticuffs ? But God is working out the problem in his 
own way. We think it important to be making great 
guns, while he, smiling at our narrow plans and purposes, 
goes on with the beating of swords into ploughshares and 
of spears injxx pruning-hooks. We bend our energies to 
preparation for war ; he makes all things work together 
for peace. The doors of the Temple of Janus are closing 
fast; the coming of Shiloh is near. 

Are we therefore to imagine that chivalry is obsolete 
or that knightly courage is of no further use? Nay. 
Manliness of the best sort is needed for the trials and 
temptations of our daily life. Oftentimes it takes more 
courage to speak the truth than it does to lead battalions 
into battle. It takes more courage oftentimes to stand be- 
fore a pointed finger than it does to face a loaded cannon, 
To say " No !" on occasion tests our manhood more effect- 
ively than to ride down " into the valley of death, into the 
jaws of hell." He who would keep his knees unbent be- 
fore the great image in the vale of Dura when sackbut 
and psaltery are ringing, needs to make a more vigorous 
call upon his manhood than were he answering the beat 
of drum. The three Babylonish youths who refused the 
meat and wine of the king's table, preferring pulse and 
water, had in them the stuff that heroes are made of. The 
same sort of bravery is shown by the young man of these 
times who turns down his glass at the banquet or refuses 
to cross the threshold with boon companions when they 
enter an iniquitous place. 



296 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

We need courage now-a-days for the defence of truth. 
The " infidel " whom the crusader went forth to meet was 
armed and harnessed for conflict on the open field ; but 
the infidel in these days wears a scholar's gown. No bat- 
tle axe can cleave his crown. His pen is more keen and 
more disastrously cruel than the Moslem's sword. And 
those who stand up against him defend not a Holy Sep- 
ulchre but that body of living truth which is dearer to 
Christ's disciple than the blood throbbing in his veins. 
Our natural disposition is to take the peaceful course, to 
avoid trouble at all hazards. But this is not the part of a 
true soldier of Jesus Christ. He cannot nor will he seek 
to excuse himself from a manful defence of the principles 
of the gospel of Christ. 

It is written of Sir Hugh Talbot that, being sentenced 
to death by his Moslem captors, life and liberty were 
offered if he would signify an abandonment of his faith. 
He was at length brought out for execution : and again 
he was offered release if he would bow under the Crescent 
and say, " God is God, Mahomet is his prophet." It was 
a sore temptation, for life was very dear to him. He 
bowed his head, and saw in the far-away castle his wife 
gazing wistfully towards the east and murmuring a prayer 
for his return ; he saw his children playing about the home 
and prattling of him. Then lifting his heart in prayer he 
shook off weakness. He arose and bared his breast, say- 
ing, " I am ready. Deus vtilt /" Oh blessed is the man, 
here and hereafter, who counts life of less value than rec- 
titude, and freedom of less worth than a clear conscience! 

We need courage also for a manly assault upon all 
entrenched forms of evil. There are so many wrongs to 
be righted ; there are so many castles to be levelled with 
the earth. These are times for vertebrate Christians. 
The dram-shop, the gambling-hell, and infamous resorts 



THE TRUE KNIGHT. 297 

of every name and nature are fortresses that must be re- 
duced in the name of the Most High God. Never was 
valor more needed than in our onslaughts upon these 
frowning strongholds of the enemy. It is so easy to abide 
in our comfortable places and let the few faithful — who are 
not afraid to be called fanatics — march out in more or less 
effectual attempts to reduce these haughty forms of sin. 
The good Lord give us the courage of the right ! The 
good Lord make us willing to be, if necessary, in the right 
with two or three ! The good Lord help us to make our 
influence felt to the very uttermost of its measure against 
all forms ofsin ! 

We need courage for the defence of the weak. The 
spirit of knighthood is the spirit of humanity. There is no 
chivalry which does not recognize the Golden Rule* There 
is no true man, no gentleman, whose heart does not thrill 
at the faintest cry for help. We smile at the devotion of 
the true knight of the olden time to his ladye fayre ; but 
the glove which fluttered from his spear-point spoke of a 
nobler sentiment than gallantry ; it was the symbol of a 
glorious espousal, the espousal by the strong of the de- 
fence of the weak. The same spirit finds expression now- 
a-days in our great enterprises for the evangelization of the 
world and in every lesser endeavor for the uplifting of the 
fallen, the deliverance of the helpless, the feeding of the 
hungry, the wiping away of tears. There is no higher ex- 
pression of puissant courage than this. And its noblest 
exemplification was in our own Lord Jesus, who came 
from heaven as the Knight-Errant of a ruined race. He 
crossed the drawbridge into human life and conflict at Beth- 
lehem. He mingled in the fray while a lad in the carpen- 
ter-shop. He was storming castles and delivering cap- 
tives when he seemed to be preaching and healing a few 
blind and withered folk. He knew the hardships of the 



298 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

campaign, forced marches, fierce engagements in the high 
places of the field. There was no vulnerable point in his 
character, no joint in his harness, no blot on his escutch- 
eoa He bared his breast at the trumpet call, saying, in 
the front of the enemy, " Whom seek ye? Jesus? I am 
he!" He set his face steadfastly towards Golgotha. Yonder 
on the heights he died. Six mortal hours he hung there 
in anguish, bearing a solitary pain which found its best 
similitude in the treading of the wine-press. Nothing 
could appall him. Straight on he went for truth and for 
humanity. Never for an instant did his courage forsake 
him — never until the word of death and victory escaped 
him, " It is finished !" Never was such knighthood as 
that. Behold the man ! 

All other heroes of the olden time are dead. The 
Crusader's tombstone bears the transverse cross and sword, 
and " Dormit," he sleeps. But the great Knight-Errant 
lives — lives more gloriously than ever, and leads on 
through trial to victory an innumerable company of knight- 
ly men. " Lo, I am with you always," is his word, " al- 
ways — even unto the end of the world." Let us follow 
him. " In His name," was the countersign of the knights 
of St. John. At that word the blade flashed from its scab- 
bard in a comrade's defence. At that word the drawbridge 
was lowered to the hard-pressed fugitive. Our watchword 
is the same. With that upon our lips and in our hearts 
let us go about doing good, defending the weak, opposing 
the wrong, and standing for the right until our Lord shall 
open the gates of the kingdom unto us. Let us quit our- 
selves as men, as gentlemen, as knights without fear and 
without reproach, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. 



THE RESPECTABLE SALOON. 299 



THE 

RESPECTABLE SALOON. 



"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bot- 
tle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest 
look on their nakedness !" Hab. 2: 15. 

It is not my purpose to call in question the right of 
any man to use intoxicating drink. No doubt there are 
many excellent people who reserve to themselves the 
right of taking a social or convivial glass. I suggest to 
them that the noblest of all rights is that which our Lord 
exercised when he counted not even his Godhood as a 
thing to be cherished, but putting aside all divine rights 
and prerogatives, made himself of no reputation and be- 
came obedient unto death for us. The highest form of 
human freedom is the liberty to deny ourselves for the 
good of others. But whether or no any of you insist upon 
your personal privilege in this matter, we shall all agree 
that the dram-shop is an evil thing and we can make com- 
mon cause in assaulting it. The dram-shop has done evil 
and only evil all the days of its life. We are at no loss to 
define it : A place where intoxicating drink is sold over 
the counter, by the glass. The presiding genius of the 
institution is a man in his shirt sleeves with an unctuous 
face, an inviting smile, a solitaire in his bosom front — the 
bar-keeper — he is the presiding genius of the place and he 
is the malefactor of all malefactors. There are culprits 
and wrong-doers and reprobates, but this man who pre- 



300 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

sides over the dram-shop is the worst of criminals, for he 
makes ninety per cent, of them all. 

It is my purpose to make a reasonable presentment of 
the influence of the saloon, and so doing I shall ask you 
to consider how it affects man in all the various relations 
of his life. 

I. As an individual. Note its baneful touch upon his 
flesh. Man's body is God's masterpiece, erect and sove- 
reign. But drink is its ruin. Drink blears its eyes, red- 
dens and be-pimples its face, unstrings its nerves and 
sinews, weakens its limbs, and sends it reeling, staggering, 
muttering, hiccoughing, drivelling, by way of the gutter, 
to the grave. 

And how does it affect his brain ? Men say, " When 
the wine is in the wit is out." Drink would make a fool 
of an angel. Not long ago one of our leading legislators 
arose in Congress to speak upon a matter of the greatest 
importance. He steadied himself by his chair and for a 
while his lips poured forth a stream of maudlin foolish- 
ness, profanity, and uncleanness like the exudations of a 
festering sore. " Oh that men should put into their 
mouths an enemy to steal away their brains !" 

But most of all does the blight of the dram-shop fall 
upon his spiritual nature. It robs him of self-respect, 
dulls the sense of duty, and makes wreck of character. 
There is a multitude of drunkards at this moment, larger 
than the standing army of the most formidable nation of 
the earth, reeling down to death. If we could but stand 
on the edge of the abyss as they vanish into the night of 
endless despair we should hear the voice of retributive 
justice, " No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." 

II. Observe the evil influence of drink upon a man in 
his domestic relations. 

He is the house-band, vowed to love, honor, and pro- 



THE RESPECTABLE SALOON. 30I 

tect the wife and care for his little ones. But the dram- 
shop is the great home-breaker. The sweetest song that 
ever was sung touching the joys of domestic life was writ- 
ten by a man whose hand shook while he penned it and 
whose home was ruined by drink. 

" His wee bit ingle, blinkin' bonnily, 
His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wifie's smile, 
The lisping infant prattling on his knee, 
Does a' his weary carking care beguile, 
An' makes him quite forget his labor and his toil." 

Two miles away from Alloway cottage was Tarn O'Shan- 
ter's Inn. It was this inn that broke the heart of the poet's 
wife and robbed his weans of their bread. As time 
passed Burns, wrecked and impoverished by drink, betook 
himself to Dumfries, where, as exciseman, he fell lower 
and lower until, in the very prime of his life, gazing out of 
his windows at the Nithsdale hills and moaning that he 
was friendless and penniless, he breathed his great soul 
out, leaving his dear ones to the mercy of a cold world. 
John Barleycorn did it, and John Barleycorn is breaking 
up ten thousand happy homes. It is the same story always 
and everywhere. In an article on the " Tenement Houses 
of New York," in one of our recent periodicals, are the 
pictures of two neighboring apartments. The one is the 
home of a widow. The room is clean and comely. Her 
face is sad but lighted by a sweet hopefulness. The chil- 
dren are playing merrily beside her. The other apartment 
is next door and, alas, the man of the house is living — a 
drunken brute. His wife is there, bowed down and shame- 
faced, cheeks sunken and pinched, a poor despairing thing. 
The children are ragged and unkempt, shrinking from him 
with tears. The brute scowls upon them all. The picture 
is sad enough, but sadder still the thought that any Chris- 



302 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

tian should seriously propose to adorn the dram-shop for 
the comfort of this drunken brute. If the church has 
aught of time or treasure to expend, let it go towards the 
comfort of that sorrowful wife and those worse than or- 
phaned children. Let us make the tenement houses more 
comfortable and allow the brute to shift for himself. 

III. How it affects him as a neighbor. For we all owe 
something to the vicinage. Did you ever have the ha- 
bitue of a saloon for your next-door neighbor ? If so, 
how did you like it ? 

Why is it that the people of the West End of New York 
city are so persistent in excluding all dram-shops ? Why 
is it that respectable business men leave their shops and 
offices and spend days together to prevent the dram-shop 
from coming near? Why? Because, to begin with, a 
saloon is an injury to real estate. Every square foot 
of ground in the vicinity loses value by reason of it. 
Not only so, but the dram-shop, when it enters a neigh- 
borhood, does not come alone; it brings on either arm 
its two boon companions, the gambling-hell and the den 
of nameless infamy — three furies with serpentine locks. 
And with the saloon comes danger immeasurable. You 
are not willing that your wife or daughter should pass the 
door of the saloon at night. Why ? Because it is the 
dram-seller's business to brutalize his patrons. Nor are 
you willing that your boy should come within the influ- 
ence of the place. 

Here is a brief calculation that is likely to be of inter- 
est to parents. There are more than nine thousand saloons 
in New York city, i. e., one for every one hundred and 
twenty-five people, or one for every twenty-five families. 
It is not to be supposed that less than twenty-five habitual 
topers are needed for the support of each saloon. So then 
the dram-shop expects and receives on an average a pa- 






THE RESPECTABLE SALOON. 303 

tron from every household. The twenty-five topers are 
rapidly dropping into their graves and their places must 
be filled from the ranks of the rising generation. The 
saloon cannot live unless the people furnish the boys to 
support it. One from every household ! If yours does 
not furnish one, some other must cover the deficit. One 
boy from every household. Are you ready to furnish a 
boy ? You take your chances. 

IV. With respect to man in the still larger circle of in- 
dustrial life. There is not one leader among the guilds of 
the working-men to-day who does not utterly and uncom- 
promisingly denounce the dram-shop. Powderly is one 
of its worst enemies. But alas, a tremendous part of our 
working-men are enrolled as its best patrons. The Amer- 
ican working-man is the best and most prosperous laborer 
on earth. The yeoman of England with his five acres of 
ground is not to be compared with him. The French 
peasant dressed in wooden sabots and smock frock and 
owning a little vineyard on the sunny hillside is not to be 
compared with him. The German farmer content to live 
from hand to mouth is not for a moment to be compared 
with him. Our American is a self-respecting man, ambi- 
tious, energetic, hopeful. He expects to make his way 
and is resolved that his children shall be happier and more 
prosperous than he. All this is true of the sober Ameri- 
can workman. There is no doubt, however, that the vast 
majority of the laboring class in our country are habitual 
patrons of the saloon. The average outlay for drink is 
said to be $120 per annum. Tell me, how could a work- 
ing-man expect to prosper when laying out so large a per- 
centage of his earnings for drink ? It is our tippling la- 
borers who complain that the rich are growing richer and 
the poor are growing poorer. It is these who are respon- 
sible for strikes and lock-outs and who give countenance to 



304 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

wild dreams of socialism. It is true that the rich are grow- 
ing richer, and the Lord be praised for it ! It is true also, 
however, that the sober working-men of our country are 
growing richer every hour and every day, and the Lord 
be greatly praised for that ! And, alas, it is true that mul- 
titudes of our working-people are growing poorer and 
poorer. How could it be otherwise when they squander 
in drink so large a proportion of their wages, their sa- 
vings, their houses, and their lots, yea, their food and 
their clothes and their necessary comforts? It is now pro- 
posed in some quarters that these toilers shall have the 
saloon made more inviting and comfortable for their ac- 
commodation. I do believe that for the working-man who 
has no home it would be wise to provide reading-rooms, 
restaurants, and other places of wholesome resort ; but for 
a man, whether married or single, who has a home, his 
place is there at eventide and he has no business to have 
any other resort. The thing we need to do is to encour- 
age thrift through temperance and economy on the part 
of our working-men, to erect savings-banks and provide 
building associations and the like. It is an easy thing in 
this country for a sober man to get on. He cannot do 
otherwise if he will avoid the dram-shop and put away 
his surplus in a safe place. 

" Not for to hide it in a hedge, 

Nor for a train attendant, 
But for the glorious privilege 

Of being independent." 
The outlay in our country for drink and liquors, every 
way, is estimated at one billion two hundred million of 
dollars, and the largest part of this comes from the pock- 
ets of the working-men. Allow yourself to think for a 
moment what a tremendous increase there would be in 
the health and comfort and happiness of our entire coun- 



THE RESPECTABLE SALOON. 305 

try if only our working-men could be persuaded to let the 
drink alone for a single year. 

V. As to the influence upon man as a citizen. In our 
own city of New York it is a proverb that every depart- 
ment of politics is corrupted by the rum power. At every 
point the rum power antagonizes law and order. Our po- 
lice superintendent, in his recent report, states that the larger 
number of the nine thousand saloons in this city are run 
by habitual and flagrant violators of the excise laws. The 
logical consequent of such an announcement would seem 
to be the resolution to mete out retributive justice to these 
malignant law-breakers. But, strange to tell, the super- 
intendent proceeds to say that the excise laws are very 
difficult of enforcement because of their unpopularity 
among those who believe it to be an infringement of per- 
sonal freedom. Unpopular indeed ! A law is always un- 
popular with a law-breaker. Our magistrates are not 
chosen to commend themselves to those who defy the law. 
Let the superintendent poll the churches and the in- 
stitutions of learning and the respectable business houses 
and the homes of this city, and he will discover that the 
unpopularity of the excise law is confined to those who are 
carrying on the rum-traffic and their patrons. The whole- 
some portion of our population are all in favor of the en- 
forcement of the excise law. 

Let us go a little further in determining the influence 
of the dram-shop on our political life. Here is a startling 
computation. Of the nine thousand saloons in New York 
city more than five thousand are under chattel mortgage. 
The saloons boast that they control forty thousand votes. 
This fact, if indeed a fact, gives them without doubt the 
balance of power. These chattel mortgages are said to be 
held in the hands of about twenty men. These twenty 
men dominating the saloon-traffic control the balance of 

20 



306 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

power. The vote of New York city determines the polit- 
ical complexion of the commonwealth, and " as New York 
State goes, so goes the country." This means that twenty 
men, who are brewers, distillers, and wholesale liquor- 
dealers, have at this moment within their hands the con- 
trol of the Republic. A most portentous fact of which it 
behooves all good citizens to take note. 

VI. With respect to man as a cosmopolitan or citizen 
of the world. For every man is debtor to all, and it 
devolves upon every man, according to his influence, to 
make the world a better place to live in. The missionary, 
Dr. Livingstone, characterized slavery as the open sore of 
the world. But slavery is dead, and the open sore of the 
world to-day is the traffic in drink. No nation has escaped 
it. Poor Ireland has been shamed and embarrassed and 
robbed of her political rights by reason of it. Scotland, 
land of stalwart and brainy men, is groaning under it. 
And England — shame on an Englishman conscious of the 
fact that London air is dense with stale odors of " 'alf and 
'alf" and London fog is tinged with the florid reflection ot 
the bar-maids* faces, conscious that the English physique 
is proverbially heavy with drink, and yet presuming to sug- 
gest the Americanization of the spirit-house ! It is Eng- 
lish, thoroughly English, and we Americans can get on 
without it. In Germany the complaint is made in official 
circles that, owing to the effect of beer through progressive 
decades, it is scarcely possible to replenish the army with 
sound men. In France the national legislature is at this 
moment wrestling with the question, " What shall be done 
to arrest the progress of the evils of intemperance ?" It 
is indeed a poor time for Americans to think of adopting 
the saloon as a respectable institution when all the nations 
of the earth are wearied to death with it. 

VII. We now come to man in his widest relation, as a 



THE RESPECTABLE SALOON. 307 

son of God* He is an immortal being, put here to pre- 
pare for a higher and better life, and to that end needs the 
clearest brain and the cleanest conscience. The church is 
a divine institution organized to help man on in the world 
towards a higher and a better life. The great enemy of the 
church to-day is the dram-shop. In New York city there 
is one church to five thousand people and one saloon to 
one hundred and twenty-five people. Note the disparity 
and reflect how the church is handicapped in her benefi- 
cent purposes by this horrid enemy of the souls of men. ' 
It is obvious that the church has nothing to gain and 
everything to lose by striking hands with this arch-enemy. 
Compromise ? Nay ! not till Christ compromises and 
forms a coalition with the "prince of this world." "For 
what fellowship has light with darkness or righteousness 
withfunrighteousness ?" Wherefore come out from among 
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the 
unclean thing. The church is fair as the moon, clear as 
the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. The rum 
demon is foul as filth, black as night, and the eternal foe 
of God and goodness. A church in Bristol, England, 
rented a building which it owned for a wine and spirit 
store. The church stands on a hill and is approached by 
a flight of stone steps, which connect the street and the 
wine-shop with the temple of God. But some godless fel- 
low passing by and noting the incongruity which had 
escaped the sight of the preacher and his people, wrote 
upon those steps : 

1 ' There is a spirit above and a spirit below, 
A spirit of love and a spirit of woe ; 
The spirit above is the spirit divine, 
And the spirit below is the spirit of wine. ., 

It is manifest that the attitude of the church must be 
one of unflinching hostility to the dram-shop. There are 



308 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

some things, as Sir Walter Scott says, " O'er good for 
banning and o'er bad for blessing, like Rob Roy;" but 
the saloon is not one of them. It is bad, always and 
altogether bad, and irretrievably bad. There is no white- 
washing it. There is nothing left for us but to join with 
God in laying a curse upon it. 

As to a respectable saloon, if that were possible, we 
should not want it. That way lies danger. If the choice 
must be between the gilded barroom, in which ninety per 
cent, of our inebriety begins, and the low dives, with their 
sawdust, their reeking fumes of stale drink and exudation 
from perspiring inebriety, let us by all means encourage 
the dives. Boys do not commence their downward course 
in the dives, but in the gilded saloons. There they serve 
their apprenticeship, not with whiskey, but with beer. 
The low dive gets them only after the respectable saloon 
has used them up and thrown them out. There is no such 
thing as a respectable saloon. As soon speak of a pure 
devil or a comfortable hell or clean offal or wholesome 
fire-damp. It is bad, always and everywhere, and there 
is only one thing to do with it — exterminate it. 

We are told that the saloon has come to stay and that 
philosophy suggests that we make the best of it. What 
if it has come to stay ? So have snakes and tigers. So 
have small-pox and yellow-fever. So have infidelity and 
uncleanness and every evil thing. They have come to 
stay until God, working through us, through his wise and 
zealous people, shall in the fulness of time take this earth 
into his own hands, and to use the figure of the Psalmist, 
as a woman shakes the crumbs out of the tablecloth, shall 
so shake all evil out of our world. In the meantime let 
us fall into line with God and refuse to serve as coparce- 
ners with any evil thing. Let us set our faces as a flint 
against this mighty and iniquitous thing and do our 



THE RESPECTABLE SALOON. 309 

utmost to destroy it. Let us have faith to believe that, 
thus withstanding its bold front, it will yet be expelled 
from the earth. 

" For right is right as God is God, 
And right the day must win ; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin." 



3IO THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 



A DAY OF WONDERS. 



"And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in 
peace. " Luke 7:50. 

It had been a day of wonders. In the early morning 
a company of wayfaring men came up through the rocky 
defile leading to the village of Nain. By the way they 
talked of the Hope of Israel, of their Leader's succession 
to the throne. Their hearts were full of holy joy and pur- 
pose. At the gate of the village they came upon a fune- 
ral procession. A widow was following to the tomb the 
body of her only son. The heart of Jesus was touched 
with compassion as he beheld her. " Weep not," said he. 
Ah, lonely, breaking heart ! Who is this that, with a pity- 
ing word, would assuage the flood of nature's grief! She 
looked into his face and beheld somewhat there that set 
her heart throbbing with a speechless hope. He ap- 
proached the bier, touched the dead body, and said, 
" Arise !" The word echoed through the dominions of 
death. The lad arose, rubbed his eyes, smiled in a be- 
wildered way, saw his mother, stretched out his arms ; 
and while these two were foretasting a little of the joy of 
the great reunion " there came a fear upon all." Thus 
began this day of wonders ; but stranger things were to 
follow. 

The Lord passed into the village and began to preach 
in the market-place. It is probable that at this time he 
uttered those gracious words, " Come unto me, all ye that 



A DAY OF WONDERS. 311 

labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The 
sick were brought on couches and he healed them. At 
this juncture a company of the disciples of John the Bap- 
tist desired a hearing. John was a prisoner at the Castle 
of Machaerus. Alone and desolate, gazing through his 
barred windows on the desolation of the land beyond Jor- 
dan, it was little wonder if " the eye of the caged eagle 
had begun to film." It may have been to seek confirmation 
of his wavering faith that he had despatched these friends 
to inquire of Jesus, "Art thou he that should come, or look 
we for another?" The answer of Jesus was characteristic. 
He did not enter on a rhetorical demonstration of his 
credentials, but went on preaching and healing the sick. 
Then presently he said to the delegation, " Go your 
way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard : 
hotff that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor 
the gospel is preached." Here was a display worthy in- 
deed of this day of wonders; but greater things were 
coming. 

As the day wore on an invitation was received by the 
Master to dine at the house of a certain Pharisee. As yet 
there was no open rupture between him and that most 
respectable class of pietists. He accepted the invitation, 
for he was ready to go anywhere in pursuance of his 
work. He was like a physician in a city of the plague. 
The houses of the lofty and the lowly were alike to him 
if only duty called. The house of the Pharisee was open 
to the street ; on three sides were tables and couches. On 
occasions like this it was customary to keep open house. 
Nor was it unusual for strangers to stand on the piazza or 
in the doorway hearkening to the conversation of the 
guests. On this day no doubt many came to hear the 
table talk of Jesus. At length one entered on whom all 



312 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

eyes were turned. She was an unwelcome guest, a well- 
known woman of the town. She made her way noise- 
lessly to the couch where Jesus was reclining, and after a 
moment's pause — her face marked with mingled emotions 
of grief, penitence, and gratitude — she drew from beneath 
her cloak an alabaster vase of spikenard — how often she 
had perfumed her locks with it ! — and bending over his 
feet she anointed them, while wiping away with her di- 
shevelled hair the tears falling upon them. Meanwhile 
the Pharisee looked on with cold disapproval. Had the 
woman approached him on this wise he would have 
known how to repel her : " Stand aside, for I am holier 
than thou." He said within himself, " This Jesus cannot 
be a prophet, or else he would have known this woman, 
and knowing must have spurned her." Ah how little he 
knew of the heart of Jesus ! 

" Simon," said the Master, perceiving his thought, " I 
have somewhat to say unto thee." 

His host replied, " Say on." 

" There was a certain creditor which had two debtors : 
the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. 
And when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave 
them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love 
most?" 

" I suppose," said Simon, " he to whom most was for- 
given." 

And He said unto him, " Thou hast rightly judged. 
Simon, seest thou this woman ? I entered into thy house ; 
thou gavest me no water for my feet ; but she hath washed 
my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her 
head. Thou gavest me no kiss ; but this woman, since 
the time I entered, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My 
head with oil thou didst not anoint ; but she hath anoint- 
ed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, 



A DAY OF WONDERS. 313 

her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved 
much." 

Then turning to the woman, he said, " Thy faith hath 
saved thee: go in peace." And this was the most won- 
derful of all that happened on this day of wonders. Heal- 
ings are wonderful ; the raising of the dead is more won- 
derful still. But there is nothing so divine as the deliver- 
ance of a soul from sin. 

Thus the record ends. The woman goes her way for- 
given. What a day this has been for her ! In the morn- 
ing she was burdened with shame and hopelessness. Now 
the music of heaven is ringing in her soul. She has come 
out of darkness into light, out of the shadow of death into 
newness of life. God hath put a new song into her lips, 
even the song of salvation. 

We note in this incident a procession of three graces — 
the three redemptive graces following each other in the 
logical order of the spiritual life. 

I. Faith. This is the saving grace. " Thy faith," said 
the Master, " hath saved thee." 

This woman had stood in the company that listened 
to his discourse on truth and goodness, had felt within her 
the stirring of better hopes and aspirations, had seen the 
ghosts of the past go trooping before her, had longed and 
despaired and hoped against hope — until that blessed 
word was uttered, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Thereat her 
soul started up and took hold on the promise. She be- 
lieved. And her faith that instant saved her. 

What is faith ? It is taking God at his word. It is 
the assent of brain, conscience, heart, and will to the divine 
overtures. It is the reaching out of the soul, without ques- 
tion or murmuring, to accept the unspeakable gift. 

One day as Napoleon was reviewing his troops the 



3 14 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

reins fell from his grasp and his charger galloped away. 
A private sprang from the ranks, caught the frightened 
horse, and placed the bridle again in the Emperor's hand. 
" I thank you, Captain," said Napoleon. " Of what regi- 
ment, Sire?" was the quick reply. Pleased with his ready 
wit, Napoleon answered, " Of the Imperial Guard," and 
rode away. The soldier thereupon laid down his musket 
and walking over to a group of staff officers, assumed his 
promotion. " He said it," was enough. The Emperor's 
word was final. So is our great Leader honored by an 
instant assent and obedience. There is not a person in 
this company who cannot be saved in sixty seconds. 
11 Only believe." He that believeth in the Son hath 
life. 

But how does faith save? By bringing the soul into 
vital union with God. A train of cars is standing on the 
track. The engine has full pressure of steam. The bell 
rings. The locomotive moves, but the cars stand still. 
What is the trouble ? It backs up and tries again, but 
with the same result. What is the trouble ? The coup- 
ling has not been made. A link makes all the difference. 
There are foolish people who are acting thus all the while, 
trying to reach heaven without the coupling of faith. It 
is impossible. Faith is the sine qua noti because it brings 
us into oneness with God through our Mediator Christ 
Jesus, so that our destiny is bound up with his for ever 
and ever. When once we believe, our life is for evermore 
hid with Christ in God. 

II. Then follows Love. Love is the complement of 
faith. The expression, " For she hath loved much," 
would seem to favor the view that love rather than faith is 
the saving grace. But the word " for " in this connection 
is not causative but illative. Moreover Christ himself 
says presently, " Thy faith hath saved thee." Faith and 



A DAY OF WONDERS. 315 

love — this is the logical and chronological order. For, as 
Tyndale said, " Faith is the mother of love." 

We love Him because he first loved us. It is his lov- 
ing-kindness in delivering us out of the horrible pit and 
the miry clay that attunes our heart to the song of salva- 
tion. 

" Love I much ? I Ve much forgiven ; 
I 'm a miracle of grace." 

Behold how this woman loved him ! Her emotion was 
beyond words. She kissed his feet. The word is inten- 
sive; she kissed them again and again. And her gratitude 
was grateful to him. God's heart hungers for our love. 
Love is the fulfilling of the law. Let us make much of it. 
Behold what the Lord hath done for us. We are great 
sinners ; he is the great Saviour. " Bless the Lord, O my 
soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless 
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits !" The 
box of spikenard is not too precious to be lavished upon 
him. Nothing is too good for him. Our gratitude, how- 
ever, finds its best expression not in thanksgiving, but in 
thanksliving. " Beloved, if he hath so loved us we ought 
also to love one another." Lip-service is good as far as 
it goes, but life-service is better. We cannot minister to 
Jesus in the flesh, but we can minister to his little ones. 
Tradition says that this woman of Nain spent all her after 
life in self-forgetful service. She accompanied Christ, as- 
sisting in his labor of love ; and after his death she devoted 
herself to the reclaiming of her fallen sisters. This is the 
sort of gratitude that commends itself to the Master. His 
word is, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me." 

III. Then Peace. Faith is the root, love the tree, and 
peace the sweet consummate fruit. " Go in peace," said 
Jesus to this woman. Rather, " Go into peace." Luther 



316 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

thanked God for the pronouns ; let us thank him for this 
preposition. It suggests that she was entering upon a new 
manner of life. Old things were passed away ; all things — 
joys, tasks, hopes, and purposes — now became new. God's 
peace thenceforth was hers. What a change ! She had 
been at war with herself, with her fellow-men, and with 
God. Her conscience had been up in arms. Her life had 
been filled with a weary, desperate strife. Now the dove 
of peace brooded over her and the bells of heaven made 
music for her. The smile of the Lord was like sunshine 
upon her. " Go into peace !" Oh blessed be God for 
that legacy ! " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give 
unto you." 

There is no peace in sin, " It is a merry world, my 
masters !" But wait a moment. Stop and think. You 
dare not ? Have you lulled your fears to sleep and must 
you keep them slumbering ? Are you a sinner unforgiven ? 
If your knell rang to-night would your soul stand un- 
shriven before God? Do you try to persuade yourself 
that all is well when in your inmost soul you know that 
all is ill ? When God speaks to you, as he did to Adam 
in the garden, do you run and hide from him ? When 
you awake in the watches of the night do your fears like 
spectres shake their gaunt fingers at you ? " There is no 
peace, saith my God, to the wicked. " Your soul is full of 
war and war's alarums. You cannot be at rest while you 
abide in sin. 

And sedatives are all in vain. He is a foolish man 
who expects to cure a deep-seated malady with morphine. 
There was a time when God was angry with his people 
Israel. He afflicted them until the whole head was sick 
and the whole heart faint. " From the sole of the foot 
unto the crown of the head there was naught but wounds 
and bruises and putrefying sores." Then came the false 



A DAY OF WONDERS. 317 

prophets saying, " This is but a temporary matter. Do 
not fret, do not worry ; the trouble will pass." So the 
altars burned for Baal and the people suffered on until 
Jeremiah came ; and he cried, " Woe unto you, false 
prophets, who have healed the hurt of the daughter of my 
people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no 
peace !" They had put a plaster on a wound that 
needed cauterizing. The Lord deliver us from such 
" slight healing." And alas for the prophet who lulls to 
sleep the well-grounded fears of the awakened sinner, 
who teaches a philosophy shallower than repentance or 
narrower than the gospel of the cross ! 

There is no peace except in Christ He that believeth 
on the Son hath life ; but he that believeth not is con- 
demned already. Acquaint thyself, therefore, O sinner, 
wiffi this salvation and be at peace. This is " the truce of 
God." The woman of the city, on this occasion, received 
a definite assurance of pardon. The work had really been 
wrought when, standing among the auditors of Jesus, she 
heard him say, " Come unto me," and accepted the proffer. 
At that instant her sins which had been many were for- 
given her. But now she receives assurance in the Mas- 
ter's word. It is blessed to be forgiven, but oh how 
joyous to know it! Let us pray that the Master will 
bend over us and say, " Son, daughter, thy sins are for- 
given thee." 

A bird in mid-ocean all day long went circling around 
the ship on weary wing — nearer and nearer as if it would 
alight and then away again in sudden alarm, rising and 
circling afar — until at last, in utter weariness, it settled 
down to rest. We stood upon the deck and watched 
it as, flying to and fro, it spent its strength in need- 
less conflict with its fears. So do we resist our hopes and 
longings and hold out against the overtures of heavenly 



318 THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS. 

love. Why not suffer the dear Lord to have his way 
with us ? 

" Oh cease, my wandering soul, 
On restless wing to roam ; 
All this wide world, from pole to pole, 
Hath not for thee a home. 

" Behold the ark of God, 
Behold the open door ; 
Hasten to gain that blest abode 
And roam, my soul, no more." 

The Master speaks, " Come unto me and rest." Re- 
turn unto thy rest, O my soul, for thy Lord hath loved 
thee ! Acquaint thyself with him and be at rest. 



